The One in Our World
by Sami Lee
Summary: Slash HPDM. The gang attend a Catholic school in the Sydney CBD and Harry and Draco are becoming too close for anyone's liking but theirs. Rated R for extreme adult themes. Chapter 12 up!
1. First day back

Disclaimer: Firstly, I don't own any of the characters. They all belong to JK Rowling.

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Now, before you all start flaming me for taking these wonderful characters out of Hogwarts, let me explain my exact reason's for doing so:  
  
1. This story is based on actual events. Yes, that's right, these things have actually happened, hence, my need for a different setting. So, I've taken out favorite Trio, one sexy Slytherin and a couple of tag alongs out of our beloved Hogwarts, and chucked them into a catholic school somewhere in the Central Business District of Sydney.  
  
2. For certain scenes in this story, the characters will also not be attending a boarding school, so it may be a little out of whack, but I promise to keep the characters as much in character as I can, except Draco will probably be way off, I apologize in advance. Also, any use of telephones and computers and other such muggle artifacts will also be used, they fit the setting change, deal with it :P  
  
3. I actually hope to finish this one, as I already know how the whole thing goes... but anyhow, feel free to throw any comments, suggestions or anything else at me.  
  
Now, on with the story, but where to start........?

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Harry sat alone on the bus. It was like this most mornings. His discman blaring in his ears. He liked the idea of blocking everyone out; they didn't need to know what was going on in his life anyway.  
  
Harry sighed loudly to himself, but turned further to look out the window when he noticed heads turning in his direction. Tactful ignorance always came in handy at St Patrick's. Anything you did could be twisted and turned into something you couldn't even comprehend and within a day, the entire school would know about it. But it was even harder to ignore when the rumors were true.  
  
Harry's thoughts turned to a certain red head and he instantly regretted getting on the bus. He didn't want to go back to school this year. Not after what had happened last year and especially over the holidays.  
  
Since becoming friends with Draco, Ron and Harry seemed to be fighting not only more frequently, but more intensely as well. It had gotten to the point where Ron was becoming possessive, so finally, during the holidays, Harry couldn't take it anymore. He'd broken up with Ron and hadn't spoken to him since.  
  
Trudging sulkily off the bus with the crowd of other students, Harry looked up at the tall buildings and felt a little calmer at the false sense of security the buildings provided. He didn't walk with the other students down Market St, but instead, went along Elizabeth and turned down Park St for a last minute breakfast at McDonalds.  
  
Upon ordering a sausage Mc muffin, a large coke and several hash browns, Harry shoved a $10 note at the girl and grabbed the bag off the counter. He turned and walked straight into none other than Draco Malfoy.  
  
Draco laughed lightly as Harry spilt coke down his front, all over his school shirt and tie.  
  
"Not a good way to start a new school year, Potter." Draco said flippantly. Harry tried to laugh, but, unsuccessful, he returned to pouting over his spilt coke.  
  
"What's the matter, Harry? You want to talk or something?" He smiled warmly at the smaller boy.  
  
"Sure, but first I want to dry this shirt and get my jumper on before anyone sees me in my natural state." Draco laughed, but Harry simply walked upstairs, dumped his bag and the food onto a nearby table, anticipating that Draco would mind them and waltzed into the bathroom to clean himself up.  
  
Walking into school with Draco was probably the worst thing Harry could have done that morning, but it was the last thing to cross his mind. Upon leaving McDonalds, Harry had engaged Draco in a long re-count of what had happened between himself and Ron over the holidays. Draco listened intently as Harry told him about the fighting, the snuggling, the decision and the break up. Whenever Harry paused, Draco would share his insights, and each time, Harry's mood lifted a little.  
  
They continued like this, until two blocks down they reached the school. Harry would have stopped and looked up at it's looming form, not wanting to step a single foot inside, but having Draco by his side, he completely forgot about facing Ron and went on talking and laughing with Draco.  
  
As they entered the hall where all the 10th grade lockers were, Harry froze almost immediately. The first person Harry noticed was Ron, his mouth wide open, his eyes already filling with tears and his bag on the floor by his feet, books spilled everywhere. Then, before he could do anything, Harry noticed Hermione walking toward him, a look of absolute hatred on her face. She looked as though she were about to hit him, but instead, she grabbed his arm, flung him around and marched him off in the other direction.  
  
Once they were safely away in an empty classroom, Harry felt Hermione's eyes boring into the back of his neck. He turned slowly to face her, and was met with the scariest looking Hermione he had ever seen.  
  
"Hermione, I –"He started, but she wasn't about to let him explain himself.  
  
"_Harry_, how _could_ you!!?? Haven't you hurt him enough? Haven't you already broken his heart? How dare you dump him for Malfoy! Of all people! I'm so ashamed, no, I'm furious! Harry, I thought you were a better person than that!" Her face was red with anger, her eyes too filled with unshed tears.  
  
"It wasn't like that. I – I didn't think..." He stammered.  
  
"You're right, you didn't think, and now you're going to pay for your lack of thinking. Ron won't forgive you for this. You've cut him too deep this time." And with that, Hermione turned on her heel and marched straight out of the room, leaving Harry alone with his thoughts and his rapidly building guilt.  
  
Harry thanked God that neither Ron nor Hermione were in his homeroom this year. He was in 10P3. Three rooms down from Hermione's, Diagonally from Ron's and across the hall from Draco's.  
  
He sat next to Neville and tried to concentrate while his new homeroom teacher, Ms Jourdain read out their new timetables. This year he was in core group C, Intermediate Mathematics and English B. He was taking Computing Studies, Japanese and Geography as his electives.  
  
He scribbled down his English lesson on day 5, period 3 and glanced again at his watch, wishing desperately that recess would come so he could find out who he would be sharing all his classes with this year.  
  
Harry felt the anxiety in his chest rise as the bell sounded, and he shoved his books into his bag and pelted out of the room. He didn't know who he was running to, he was just running, and not watching where he was going at that. He landed with a slight thud next to a red haired boy and they both lay motionlessly on the floor for what seemed like hours.  
  
When Harry opened his eyes, he saw that most of his year had gathered in a large circle around them to try and see what was going on. He heaved himself onto his shoulders and looked down at the not unconscious, but still not moving Ron.  
  
"Ron, are you-"  
  
"Don't even bother, Harry. Just go."  
  
Harry didn't need to hear Ron's tone to know he meant it. He felt his heart sink. He got up, hoisted his bag onto his shoulder and started walking down the hall. He didn't look back. And Ron didn't care.  
  
Harry found Draco leaning against the wall at the bottom of the staircase that led down to the junior quadrangle. He smiled when Harry saw him.  
  
"I was wondering when I'd be seeing you, Mr. Potter" he joked, slapping Harry on the arm lightly and turning toward the canteen. "Come on, I'm starved."  
  
"Dray?" Harry really didn't know what he was going to say, but he had to say something.  
  
"Yea, Harry?" Even his eyes smiled back when Harry felt his lips curve into a small smile.  
  
"Thanks" Harry managed, and he followed Draco across the quadrangle to the canteen.  
  
"For what, Harry?" He looked at Harry expectantly.  
  
"Just for being you." Harry replied, not really knowing what else to say and never really expecting to say what he said.  
  
Harry sat with Draco, Neville, Dean, Seamus, Fred and George and a bunch of other people in his grade. They discussed who was in whose class and which teachers they had. Harry was pleased to find Draco was in his Core group, in which they had PdhPE, Religion and Study. Ron, Hermione and Draco were all in his Math group, and Draco was also in Harry's English class.  
  
Harry left school that day, considerable happier than he had been on arriving that morning, he had managed to avoid both Ron and Hermione for the remainder of the afternoon, and he had almost all his classes with Draco. The only class he wasn't looking forward to was Geography, which he shared with Ron.  
  
Harry sat at the back of the bus, headphones again in his ears, and watched all the 7th and 8th graders argue over the remaining back seats. He rolled his eyes and turned to look out the window. As he did this, something caught Harry's eye. It was Draco, he spotted Harry and waved, smiling ferociously. Harry waved back, and watched him as the bus pulled away from the bus stop.  
  
'Well, at least it ended a lot better than it started' He thought to himself, turning up the volume on his CD player and sinking down into the bus seat.

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Plz R&R 


	2. A late night phone call

Ok, so they're all out of character, so sue me.

I guess I should really be saying, "This story is based on real events – names have been changed for the privacy of those involved and their families." Lol, but no, I really thought this would work with these guys. I mean, even the fact that Draco's father hates Harry fits in perfectly. Anyways.. No more babbling.

Thank you to Marie, Anna and Caz Malfoy for their reviews, greatly appreciated :D

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The first few weeks of school went by almost eventlessly, apart from the occasional death stares from Ron, the attempts at lectures from Hermione and the constant nagging rumors that were starting to spring up about himself and Draco.  
  
On February the 15th, the day after a very depressing and non-eventful valentines day, Harry and Draco were invited to one of the twin's friend's party's. This party was to take place on February the 26th, and Harry really didn't want to make an appearance.  
  
"Oh come on, Harry!" Draco half-pleaded, half-commanded sounding very much like Ron. "It'll be fun, I promise."  
  
"I really don't think it will be, Dray. I don't even know half the people who are going."  
  
"I'm going." Draco's last defense seemed to win Harry over, unbeknownst to Harry that is.  
  
"Fine, but I'm not turning up there alone, can you pick me up?" He still thought it was generally a bad idea.  
  
"I have a better idea, I'll come to your house and we can go together, how does that sound?" He smiled mischeviously and got up as the bell sounded loudly from the PA system, echoing through the school.  
  
On the Friday before the party, just before lunch, Harry found a very strange note in his locker. He decided it would be best to read this particular note away from everyone else. Not for any particular reason, simply that he felt he had to.  
  
Upon opening the note, Harry noticed Draco's neat handwriting. He read it quietly to himself.  
  
_'Dear Harry, _

_I know how you felt when you wanted to tell Ron it was over but couldn't because you felt like it'd kill you. Well, I can't tell someone...... something or they'll kill me, but if I don't, I'll drive myself insane. Not the same kind of thing, but I'll just die if I don't tell someone. It's just the only person I CAN tell will kill me if I do!! What do I do Harry?! Help me...'  
  
Dray'  
_  
Harry stared down at the note for what seemed like a very long time, then he shoved the note in his pocket and ran off to find Draco. Not finding him in the library or the art rooms, Harry tried the quadrangle, but Fred and George hadn't seen Draco either.  
  
"Sorry, Harry, we haven't seen much of anyone today." Fred said, holding up a plan for some new practical joke they'd been working on out so Harry could see it.  
  
The bell sounded for the end of lunch and Harry sulked back up to the 10th grade corridor to get his books for his next lessons. Japanese and Geography. 'Crap,' he thought to himself, 'now how the hell am I going to find out what's bugging Draco?' He sighed loudly and crammed his math books into the small locking, forcing the door shut on an impending avalanche.  
  
Japanese passed, leaving Harry even more confused and stressing over an up coming listening and speaking exam. Even Hermione couldn't help him on this one, not that she would. He walked to Geography alone, and sat at the back of the room, next to a window. Harry often sat alone in Geography, as the only people he really spoke to in the class were Ron and Lavender, and he really wasn't in any mood to have lavender in his ear for an hour.  
  
Harry took out Draco's note and placed it, still folded, on the desk in front of him. He stared at it. He really wasn't sure whether to be more worried or curious. As Ron entered the room he gave Harry a raised eyebrow as he sat staring at his folded piece of paper, then sat in the second from the front row, his back facing Harry.  
  
Harry didn't see Draco after Geography, or during homeroom, or on his way up to the bus stop. He didn't see him while he was sitting on the bus either.  
  
At 7 O'clock, Harry was sitting on his computer, miserable as usual and thinking about the note from Draco. He jumped when he heard the phone ring.  
  
"Hello?" Harry rarely got phone calls now that Ron wasn't speaking to him. And Draco wasn't allowed to make phone calls on school nights. Then again, it was Friday.  
  
"Harry? It's Dray... How are you?" Harry was so shocked, he almost forgot to speak.  
  
"Hi, I'm alright, you?" How awkward, Harry thought to himself.  
  
"Good, my parents are out. I just wanted to organize what time you wanted me to come over tomorrow." Draco sounded as though this wasn't really why he had called. Maybe he liked Harry and that was the thing he couldn't tell... Don't be so stupid, Harry told himself sternly.  
  
"Whenever you want, we have to be at Lee's house at 11:30, so before 10:30 would be good."  
  
"Oh, my parent's are leaving at 8 to take my brother to football, can I come then?" He sounded as if he really didn't have to be there that early, more like he wanted to be.  
  
"Oh, sure, that should be fine." Harry really wasn't sure what was going on.  
  
The two boys talked for a while about trivial things – homework and the like, until Harry had had enough and brought up the topic that Draco had obviously been avoiding.  
  
"Dray – What was it that was driving you insane today, you wrote in the note that-"  
  
"Nothing, Harry, forget the note." Draco cut him off rather harshly.  
  
"But – ok, what if I guess it, then will you tell me?" Draco must have been surprised by Harry's question, as he didn't quite answer quickly enough. "I'll take that as a yes then. Ok, is someone trying to kill you?"  
  
"What? No......"  
  
"Is someone trying to kidnap you?"  
  
"Huh? Harry......"  
  
"is someone trying to...." The two boys went on like this for over an hour, Harry coming up with weird guess after weird guess and Draco continually saying no. Finally there was a short silence, in which Harry couldn't come up with anything else Draco could possibly be hiding which didn't involve himself. He looked at the clock, it was 5 to 12.  
  
"what're you doing?" Draco asked dazedly, Harry could tell he was getting tired.  
  
"I'm lying on my dining table, looking at the ceiling." Harry mumbled.  
  
"What? What feeling?" Draco stammered, waking up a little.  
  
"Huh? I said ceiling, Draco......." Harry propped himself up on his elbows. At this Harry was almost sure that he was right in thinking Draco liked him. But he didn't say anything, instead he waited for Draco to say something. "Oh..."  
  
"Dray, what feeling?" Harry persisted.  
  
"Harry, I gotta go, my Parents are home." Harry felt his heart drop.  
  
"Ok, I'll see you in the morning then."  
  
"Yea," Harry heard a hint of eagerness in Draco's voice, "See you tomorrow." Harry smiled to himself as he hung up the phone and walked as quietly as he could to his room.

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A/N Sorry about the chapters being so short, I'll try and start making them longer, or ta least keep doing one a night.  
  
Plz R&R. TA! 


	3. The Party

2 things. Yes, this all pretty much really happened. Yes, James and Lily are alive, but only because I need someone playing my parents in the story..

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Chapter 3 - The Party.  
  
Harry woke on Saturday morning to the sound of his mobile beeping loudly in his ear.  
  
"God, who the hell would message me this early?" He said groggily to himself before looking at the clock - 7:45am. "SHIT!" he jumped out of bed and almost slid to his death as he rounded the corner to the bathroom. "Damn wood floors." He mumbled.  
  
Just as he was drying his hair, he heard the doorbell ring, but decided to let his mum get it.  
  
"Harry!" he heard his mother's voice through the door. This was followed by three sharp knocks. "Draco's here."  
  
"Coming!" he didn't want to look too eager, so he put some gel in his hair and pulled on his favorite red shirt to pass a few minutes. Regardless of the gel, Harry's hair still stuck up at all odd angles. He looked at himself in the mirror and sighed. 'Oh well,' he thought, 'It'll have to do.'  
  
"You can put some music on if you want!" He yelled out to Draco, who he figured was sitting in his room. A minute later Harry heard the radio blaring from his bedroom. He looked in the mirror again before rolling his eyes and making his way to his room.  
  
Draco was sitting on the bed, looking at all the photos on the wall. There were hundreds of them, from pictures of his parents, photos of Ron and Hermione, photos of Ron and Harry, even photos of himself. He smiled when he noticed this.  
  
"What's funny?" Harry heard himself ask, but was too taken aback by the fact that his heart was fluttering at the idea of Draco being in his room to notice he was actually saying anything. A picture of Ron and Harry caught Draco's eye.  
  
"You two were really close, weren't you?" Draco turned to look at Harry, who was still standing in the doorway. He tried to smile, but failed. He turned and shut the door, locking it so that his parents didn't hear his next sentence.  
  
"I thought I loved him, but... I guess I was wrong." He walked toward the bed, stopping far away enough that he could only just smell the lynx Apollo that Draco was wearing. Again, he felt his heart quiver.  
  
"But enough about me and Ron, that's in the past. Lets talk about _you_ Draco, you and that note. You and this apparent 'feeling'." Harry said mockingly. He saw Draco's features drop, and this time he managed to smile. "Come on Dray, I'm sure whatever it is you can tell me, what the worst that could happen?" He sat on the bed next to him, trying to act like he was completely calm and composed. He wasn't. He liked Draco, this much was obvious, then again, it had been for a while. But Draco liking him back, this was the thing that had kept Harry's head, and his heart, at bay. Draco would never like him back! Or would he.......  
  
"Harry, I- forget it, please? Please?" He stammered, moving away from Harry to pretend to continue looking at the photos on the wall. Harry grinned evilly to himself. He grabbed Draco's wrist and spun him around to make the other boy look into his eyes.  
  
"Tell me. I dare you." Harry's mind was set, he was going to make Dray confess. There was an evil gleam in his eye that Draco didn't like. "Dray, come on and just tell me already."  
  
"No." He tried to fight Harry off, but failed. The two boys play-wrestled on the bed, Harry trying to get Draco to admit his secret, Draco trying helplessly to escape Harry's grasp. But it was no use, Harry was stronger and in one swift move, he was straddling Draco, pinning him to the bed.  
  
Both of the boy's breathing was uneven as they stared into each other's eyes, neither of them game to move. Harry's heart was thumping against his chest like a caged bird. He stared at Draco, waiting for him to either move or say something, but the taller boy did just as he was doing.  
  
Draco lay on his back, his arms pinned to the bed by Harry's warm hands, two inches of air was all that lay between the boys faces. Harry felt his face getting hot, and noticed the pink in Draco's usually pale cheeks as well. He waited until his breathing had clamed a little then he looked at the clock. It was 10:40.  
  
"Crap, we gotta go or we wont get to Lee's on time." He jumped up and marched across the room, shoving his feet into his shoes a little too hard. Draco sat up slowly and looked at Harry's back. His breathing was still unnaturally heavy.  
  
"Uhhh, ok." He got up and made sure he had his phone and his wallet, then he walked to the door and waited for Harry just outside the door. Harry called to his mum that they were leaving and marched out the door, pulling it shut behind him. They walked to the bus stop in silence.  
  
The party consisted of a lot of coke and junk food, and an exuberant lot of prank phone calls. After about two hours, it was voted on that the group should all go down to the shop for lunch. Lee lived just down the road from the mall, but there was a KFC which was just that conveniently little bit closer. Harry and Draco dropped behind on Harry's urge that he needed to talk.  
  
"Dray, it's bugging you, I can tell. Now what is it?" He whispered harshly, but placed his hand on Draco's shoulder when he noticed the hurt look on his pale face. "Come on Dray, you can tell me, I promise it wont shock me, and I wont kill you." Harry smiled his 'charming' smile, urging Draco to tell him.  
  
"Lets face it Harry, you've probably already figured it out. And then I'll feel even more stupid when you get all disgusted and freak out and never talk to me again." Draco looked as though he was on the verge of tears. He tried to smile back at Harry, but it was no use. Harry couldn't bear seeing Draco hurting like this.  
  
"You like me don't you?" He couldn't believe his ears. Had he just asked Draco that question? Or had he only thought it? Harry was about to start panicking, but didn't quite make it when Draco stopped, forcing Harry to stop also, and turn to face him. "Dray......?"  
  
"I- "Draco paused, looking up at Harry, almost chocking on his own words. "I didn't really think you'd figure it out. Is it really that obvious?" Harry felt his heart lighten considerably. He smiled and walked over to where Draco had stopped, about a meter away from him.  
  
"Not to anyone who didn't know what they were looking for." Harry reassured him, urging the other boy to start walking again, so as not to draw attention to them. "Why didn't you just tell me?" As they walked into KFC, they sat away from the others who were ordering their food. "You know we can't act on this though, don't you? I couldn't do it all again after Ron......" He really didn't want to say it, it was a lie, but after what he'd done to Ron, he cared too much about Draco to hurt him that way. Draco looked down and nodded his head slightly. He had feared Harry would say this and had braced himself for the worst.  
  
"Can I get you lunch at least?" Draco looked up, the tears in his eyes not yet falling, but they would, and soon. He smiled a little and nodded, then followed Harry up to the counter. "Uhhh – can I get two large original fillet burger combos please." Harry looked up at the menu while the lady ran around getting all the food into the bag. But Draco had taken a hold of Harry's sleeve and was unconsciously gripping it with what seemed like his life. Harry took the bag off the woman and gave her the money. He wondered how he wasn't getting fat from eating all this junk food.  
  
After lunch and a few more hours of prank calls and making a huge mess and locking Harry in Lee's room from the outside for half an hour, the group walked up to the mall to watch a movie. Harry decided 5 minutes in that he wasn't particularly interested in the movie, but instead was running things over in his mind. Should he go out with Draco? He liked him, that was a good reason to do it. But what about Ron? He'd been friends with Ron since 7th grade. But then again, Ron wasn't speaking to him.  
  
Harry looked at Draco who was sitting next to him, his cheeks were still flushed and Harry couldn't help but think of how cute he looked, without thinking, Harry reached down and took Draco's hand in his own. Draco wrapped his hand around Harry's and gave it a small squeeze. Harry smiled to himself in the darkness and closed his eyes. He hadn't been this happy since he'd started high school and met Ron.  
  
Harry desperately pushed all thoughts of Ron from his head and focused on Draco's small hand in his. He was free, he was happy, he was in love.  
  
After the movie was done, they all went downstairs to wait for their parents and such to come and pick them up. Harry led Draco away from the group and sat him down behind a small wall that separated the main entrance, where everyone else was, from the small side entrance, which led to the cinema staircase. He took Draco's hand in his for the second time that night and squeezed it softly.  
  
"Dray, I-"  
  
"Harry, I don't know what to say, I need to think. I just need to get my head around this, lets not make it difficult. Lets not make it confusing. Ok?"  
  
Harry nodded his agreement and gently let go of Draco's hand. He smiled at him and kissed his forehead.  
  
"I'll try." He promised. Not knowing whether it would be possible to try and keep something, which he knew was going to be difficult, simple for Draco. He didn't think he could do it. But he had to try; he had to make Draco happy. Could he do this? Was he ready for this? Harry didn't know the answers to any of these questions, but he did know that he wanted to be with Draco. And that this day, this night and everything that had happened had meant something to him. He looked again at Draco, he looked confused.  
  
"Dray, are you alright?" Harry voiced his concern for the other, and instead was met with the sound of Draco crying. "Draco, what's wrong?"  
  
Draco looked at Harry and tried desperately to stop. But he couldn't, it was all too much. He pulled himself up and started to walk toward the gray Torago that Harry recognized as Draco's mother's car. He sighed to himself.  
  
"See you Monday, Draco. If you need me ring me!" He yelled after the blonde boys retreating form. Not long after Draco left, Harry's dad pulled up and beeped the horn, dragging Harry back to reality. He couldn't let his father see that there was something wrong. There would be questions then, and Harry wasn't ready to answer them.  
  
Harry lay in his bed, thinking, he knew there was no way he was going to sleep tonight. Draco hadn't called. He looked at his clock. 12:45. It was Sunday. Harry sighed and rolled over. He couldn't get the image of Draco's hand nestled in his own out of his head. He dreamt, that night, of Draco falling, and Harry trying to hold onto his hand and pull him back up. But every time Draco fell, and every time Harry felt like he too was falling. And he wanted to die.

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A/N Ok, sorry that this one is short again, but it's late, I have work tomorrow and if I don't post this now it wont go up till next weekend. I'm trying. Meanwhile, check out my shitty drawings www.indiana- janaradeviantart.com and I'll try and have the next chapter up soon. Back to school, back t school... mwahahaha! 


	4. Back to School

"If you go out in the woods today, you're sure of a big surprise." ............  
  
"If you go down to the woods today, you're... you're... you're..."  
  
Harry turned to Seamus who was trying incredibly hard to ignore the raven- haired boy beside him. He turned to face Harry, so annoyed he felt he was going to slap him if he opened his mouth again. Harry noticed this and shrugged.  
  
"For every bear that ever there was, will gather there for certain, because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic!!" Harry couldn't quite hit the last note and Seamus winced horribly as his voice broke. But nevertheless, Harry continued his little singsong as he marched through the halls toward the 10th grade lockers.  
  
"If you go out in the woods today you'd better not go alone. It's lovely out in the woods today, but safer to stay at home. For every bear that ever there was will gather there for certain, because today's the day the teddy bears have their picnic!!"  
  
"Are you quite finished?!" Seamus had certainly had enough. He had sung all the way to school on the bus, all the way down Elizabeth St, down Park St to McDonalds, as loudly as he could in McDonalds, then all the way to school. And he wasn't done yet.  
  
"Don't give up your day job, Harry." A cool voice said from behind them. Harry spun around.  
  
"Well, if it isn't mister Malfoy." Harry smirked uncharacteristically and leaned against the nearest set of lockers. "Go on Seamus, I know you want to keep walking." Seamus shook his head and indeed kept walking, leaving Harry and Draco almost alone in the corridor.  
  
"Look, I – "  
  
"Don't, it's ok, I don't expect an apology, or an explanation. Really, it's ok." He pushed himself off the lockers and walked over to where Draco was standing. "Just so long as you're ok?"  
  
"I'm fine. Read this, ok?" He handed Harry a small piece of folded paper. Harry took it and pocketed it straight away.  
  
"Ok. See you in English." He smiled at Draco and Draco smiled back, his mood lightening considerably.  
  
"Yea, see you in English." And both boys headed off for their separate homerooms.  
  
Geography passed slowly, English passed quickly, recess passed noisily and Harry soon found himself sitting in Computer Studies. Not paying any attention what so ever to what the rest of the class were doing, Harry pulled the note out of his pocket.  
  
_"Dear Harry  
  
How r ya? I'm tired, it's 12:45am, hey, it's Sunday. Heh. Anyways, what did you think of the movie? It was pretty boring, huh? Ok, I'll stop avoiding the point. I'm sorry about Saturday night. I guess I just freaked out. I didn't know what to do. I'm sorry. But if it's any consolation, it did mean something to me..... A big something. Anyways, I hope you don't hate me.  
  
Love Draco."_  
  
_'_Love Draco?' Harry thought to himself. 'Wow.' And with that, he spent the rest of the lesson, and Japanese after it staring out the window. Bored out of his brain, Harry ripped a page out of his workbook and started scribbling on it.  
  
_"Dear Dray,  
  
I'm bored. Japanese is terribly boring. I must say though, it's bearable when thoughts of you fill my mind. Though I wish Hermione at least was talking to me again. It's just so weird when people you have been so close to for so long stop speaking to you.  
  
I'm sorry if I came on a little too strong, just let me know if you're not comfortable with anything and I shall accommodate.  
  
By the way, you're so cute when you worry. If you need me for anything, just let me know.  
  
Love Harry."  
_  
He neatly folded the note and shoved it into his pocket with the other one. Before he could actually get and work done, the bell rang and everyone jumped up and headed for the door. Not watching where he was going, Harry walked straight into the doorframe and next thing he knew he was lying on his back on the floor.  
  
Harry groaned as he tried to open his eyes and the pain instantly started throbbing through his head. He looked around; he was in the sick bay. He noticed a mop of blonde hair in the corner.  
  
"Draco?" He mumbled, he put a hand to his forehead and felt a huge lump close to his left temple. "Harry, it's me, I'm here." Draco jumped up from the chair and ran to Harry's side.  
  
"Draco, reach into my pocket, there's something in there for you." Draco looked at Harry with a confused expression, but did as he was told anyways. He read the note in silence, and Harry noticed that as he finished reading his face was going bright red. Harry giggled.  
  
"Dray, you look a little embarrassed." Draco scolded at this and stood up.  
  
"Don't push it, Harry. I have to get to Art, see you in Science." He smiled and reached out for Harry's hand, Harry placed his hand in Draco's. "Get better, ok? I'll treat you to Maccas this arvo, meet me at the bottom of the stairs." Harry smiled and squeezed Draco's hand in thanks, then lay his head down to try and stop the throbbing.  
  
Harry didn't make it to Science, so that afternoon he couldn't wait to see Draco. He almost fell down the stairs in his rush to get down them. He met Draco at the bottom of the stairs, like he said he would, and they walked together down towards George St.  
  
Everyone went to McDonalds on Pitt St in the afternoons, so Harry and Draco decided it would be wiser to go down to George St.  
  
They sat down stairs and found that there weren't many other people down there. They talked and laughed for what seemed like hours, until Draco looked at his watch and said he had to go.  
  
"Now?" Harry whined. He walked Draco to the bus stop and was surprised him when he hugged him.  
  
"What? I can't hug you now?" Draco turned red again, before smiling and climbing onto the bus.  
  
"Bye Harry." Harry watched the bus drive off and turned around to make his way back to his own bus stop. He sighed. Was he doing the right thing, or was he just getting himself in deeper? He didn't want to think about it, so he pulled out his disc man and turned it up full blast.  
  
The bus trip home was uneventful. But the arrival home, however, was not.  
  
"Where have you been!? I've been worried sick! No note, no phonecall, nothing!!" Harry looked at his mother and suddenly he felt awful. He didn't say anything, instead, he walked over and hugged her, wishing he could talk to her about how he felt, wishing she could help him. But he didn't want to risk losing her, or losing his dad, or his friends. He had no one to talk to except Hermione, and even she wasn't speaking to him. Harry didn't eat dinner that night, instead he went straight to his bedroom and turned his computer on. He sat down determined to write a very long, very serious letter to Hermione. Instead, he ended up writing to Draco.  
  
He sat in front of the computer for what seemed like forever, in fact it was about 5 hours. He didn't think he'd actually ever give the letter to Draco, but instead, he put it in his journal, which he kept locked in a small black box on his desk. Maybe he'd give it to him one day...

* * *

A/N Sorry about another short chapter, but details are getting harder to remember and I just don't have the time, but I'm trying to update as often as possible... I may contact some old 'friends' for some help.. but who knows...  
  
Later all, plz review ;) 


	5. True Love's First Kiss

A/N Sorry it's been taking so long, I'm trying, really I am! VERY short, but I wanna get this up.

* * *

Over the next few weeks, Harry's friends started to notice his absence. He didn't sit with them in class, he didn't sit with them at lunch, hell, he didn't even call them anymore. He spent every weekend with Draco and seemed to be on an entirely distant planet. And perhaps he was.  
  
"Dray?" Harry was twirling his fingers in the blonde mop of hair that was settled on his stomach.  
  
"Yea?" the blonde head twisted awkwardly to respond. His gray eyes shining like mercury.  
  
"Lets go somewhere today." Harry placed both his hands on either side of Draco's pale face. Draco sat up, causing Harry's hands to fall back into his lap.  
  
"You're hands are Freezing, and where would you like to go?" Harry could tell he was tired, not only by the slight slur in his speech, but also from the dark shadows under his eyes.  
  
Harry shrugged and stood up, walked over to his desk and picked up his wallet. Shoving it into the back pocket of his jeans he walked back over to where Draco was still lying on the bed. He sat down next to him and leant down, kissing the other boy's nose. He looked up at Harry, then maneuvered around him and got up off the bed.  
  
Harry didn't know what to make of it. Every time he got close to Draco, Draco moved away. It was almost as if the thought of being that close to Harry disgusted him. Harry hadn't said anything yet, but the fact that his boyfriend didn't want to kiss him was starting to bother him. He followed Dray out of the room and placed a hand on his shoulder.  
  
"Wanna tell me what's up?" He spoke softly, so as not to make Draco think he was mad. He wasn't, he just wanted to know what was going on, he wanted an explanation as to why his boyfriend barely wanted to go anywhere near him. "Did I do something wrong?"  
  
Draco looked at him with pained eyes. Harry knew that look; it was the look that Draco wore when he was arguing inwardly with himself. "I don't want you to think I don't like you." He started slowly and softly, like he was talking only with himself. He breathed out heavily and then looked up into Harry's face. "I do want to be close to you, I do want to..... to kiss you." His cheeks went slightly red, but Harry was more interested in the fact that Draco had practically read his mind. He smiled at him reassuringly and then pulled him into a hug. Draco held onto him tightly as if he were never going to let go.  
  
"When the time is right, it'll happen. Don't stress about it, Dray. Everything will be better than fine." He kissed Draco's forehead lightly and wandered back into his room. The sounds of keys could be heard as Harry picked them up off the floor and headed back out of his bedroom, closing the door behind him.  
  
Draco loved Harry's room. He loved the pictures on the wall. He loved the black t-shirt material bedspread. He loved the way it was so neat and tidy. He loved the fact that there was a lock on his door. But most of all, he loved the way it smelt like Harry. He wasn't sure what it was that was stopping him from jumping Harry every time he saw him!! Maybe it was just the fact that he'd never been in a relationship before.  
  
"Hey, wanna see a movie?" Harry asked, locking the front door behind him and shoving his keys into his pocket. "I don't know what's on, but we could make a day of it." At that moment, Harry's mobile phone rang. After a lot of nodding, explaining what he and Draco were doing and an attempt to dissuade him, Harry groaned and explained to Draco that Seamus had just invited himself to the movie too. Draco tried not to look disappointed, but followed Harry up the road toward the bus stop quietly.  
  
They met Seamus there and between the three of them decided to see "Scream 3", a very pathetic attempt at a third installment of the famous 'Scream' saga. After the movie and bad Chinese for lunch, the three hopped on a bus back to Harry's place and collapsed on the bed. Seamus pulled the spare out from under Harry's bed and collapsed on that.  
  
After a while, Harry put his arm around Draco stiffly, fearing his reaction, but felt overwhelmingly relieved when Draco snuggled against him. They lay there for a while, Harry contemplating whether he should just leave everything alone and not stuff it all up, and Draco almost falling asleep. Harry looked down at Seamus who was, so it looked, asleep on the floor below them. He couldn't take it any longer. Harry leaned over and placed his lips on Draco's.


	6. After the Kiss and a Meeting with Blaise

Geez, I really left it hanging. I'm awful! I'm so sorry to everyone who has been waiting for an update, I'm going to try and get this chapter done in one go so that I can post it right away and get back into it.  
  
P.S. Sorry for making Harry such a klutz, but it fits him and I think it's funny, sorry.  
  
So, on with the story.

* * *

Harry could feel Draco suddenly tense beside him, but then slowly, he started to relax into Harry's kiss, and he was kissing back! Harry didn't want to rush this, he didn't want to push Draco or make him feel uncomfortable, so when Draco didn't use his tongue, Harry didn't pursue it. But even so, Harry felt like he was in heaven, Draco tasted perfect, he was perfect. Draco broke the kiss and buried his face into Harry's unruly hair, his entire face a very obvious shade of pink.  
  
Seamus coughed. Harry froze and Draco quickly followed suit, but before Harry could say anything, Seamus had jumped up, run out of Harry's room and disappeared out the front door. Harry instinctively got up and ran after him.  
  
"Seamus! Stop, let me explain at least!" the last thing Harry wanted was to lose one of his best friends over this. "Please?" Seamus had stopped and turned to face Harry, but he wouldn't look him in the eye. Harry noticed that there were tears in his eyes, though he wasn't letting them flow freely.  
  
"Explain what, Harry! There's nothing to explain, you _lied_ to me, you lied to all of us. And what about Ron? What about..." Seamus stopped and wiped his face with the sleeve of his shirt. "Harry, you told us there was nothing going on, you _said_ it, to our _faces_!"  
  
"I know, I'm sorry, I didn't think it was going to go this far, honestly, I didn't. But it has, and I'm sorry for whomever I might hurt in doing this, but I'm going to do it. It'd just be easier if my friends were willing to accept that." At the time Harry had no inclination of just how selfish that sounded, or how selfish he in fact was being. He looked at Seamus, pleading until Seamus finally sat down on the concrete. "And why are you crying? Surely it's not that bad"  
  
"I didn't see anything." Seamus hadn't answered Harry's question, but Harry let him go on uninterrupted. "But I heard, and, it's not that, but I just don't feel very well all of a sudden, I think I ate too much at the cinema." He still didn't look at Harry and Harry felt his stomach leave him at the realisation that this made his friends sick. He made his friends sick. Without knowing what else to say, he nodded and went back inside to tell Dray what had happened. Seamus went home shortly afterward.  
  
Feeling awful and totally let down, Harry barely slept that night, and he defiantly didn't want to go to school the next day. But he did get up at 6 am the next morning, dragged himself out of bed and wandered over to the bathroom. He'd had terrible dreams that night, about everybody finding out and hating him, about Draco leaving him. He couldn't stand it; he'd barely slept, and instead had stayed up most of the night listening to his Discman.  
  
Once he arrived at school, and having listened to his discman most of the way there, Harry walked down the hall to the lockers humming loudly. The first person he saw was Seamus. Harry didn't say anything; he just nodded and smiled slightly. Seamus smiled back and walked over to him, Harry felt the extremely tight grip on his chest loosen.  
  
"Hey, I'm sorry about yesterday mate. If it means anything, I haven't told anyone and I support you 100%. Just be careful, you know how Draco can be, well, manipulative and temperamental." For a moment Harry was ready to hit Seamus for insulting Draco, he realized just in time that Seamus was only looking out for Harry, and was still willing to be his best friend. Harry let out a sigh of relief.  
  
"Thanks, Seamus. That means a lot. And thanks for not telling the others, I'm not ready to tell anyone else yet, I don't think. I'm not even sure where this is really going anyways." Seamus nodded, he hadn't been in many relationships, but he gave amazingly good advice when it was needed.  
  
"No problem, just remember, if you have any problems or just wanna talk about it, you know where to find me." Before Harry could thank him again, Seamus waved and ran off toward the stairs to the library. Harry had barely turned a full 180 degrees before he came face to face with Draco.  
  
"Morning Sunshine." Draco smiled, flipping his hair out of his face. Harry didn't say anything at first, had Draco, the boy with the glowing blonde hair just called him 'sunshine'?? Now that didn't make sense.  
  
"Uhh.. oh, yea, morning." Draco's smile vanished.  
  
"What? What happened? What did I do wrong?" It was Harry's turn to smile; he patted Dray on the shoulder then turned back to his locker, shoving his books inside.  
  
"Nothing, you just called me 'sunshine.'" Both boys cracked up laughing and then headed off to English.  
  
Over the next few days, people started questioning Harry. At first it was harmless rumors, but eventually Draco's name started popping up and it was then that Harry started getting angry.  
  
On one particular afternoon, one of the boys whom Harry didn't particularly get along with decided to stick his nose into Harry's business. Blaise, who got his kicks out of beating up anyone smaller than he was, waltzed up to Harry in Geography. Lavender scooted down two chairs to completely avoid the confrontation. Harry didn't flinch, he stared straight back at Blaise. "Can I help you?" The sarcasm wasn't enough for Blaise to pick up, as he was rather thick, but lavender giggled and he even heard a snicker that sounded like Ron. Wishful thinking, Harry muttered to himself.  
  
"No, you can't. But you could come over here and fight me." He grinned stupidly, his too-small-to-be-a-real-bully frame making the grin look more cunningly evil than cruel.  
  
"If I were to do that, get up and fight you, that is, wouldn't I then be helping you?" Blaise looked dumbfounded. It was Harry's turn to grin now, he leaned back in the chair, put his feet on the desk, crossed his arms over his chest and promptly fell out of his chair.  
  
The entire room erupted with laughter, except for Ron; who, for a moment, looked about ready to run over and help Harry back up, before he scowled, turned around and pretended he didn't see. Harry sighed, dragged himself up of the floor, stuck his tongue out at Blaise and sighed deeply. Was that it? Was his life just going to be one joke after another now? He shrugged to himself, not really caring, and pulled out a piece of paper to write a letter to Draco.  
  
He met up with Dray at the lockers at lunch, where they swapped notes. Draco laughed when he read about what had happened with Blaise, but Harry's expression was one of anxiety. "What's wrong?" Draco asked, looking kind of worried himself.  
  
"Did you tell her anything? Did you!? Please tell me you didn't, because if you did she's going to go and tell the entire school!!!" Harry's face had gone very red, and he looked about ready to punch something. Draco hastily stepped aside as Harry threw the now scrunched up piece of paper.  
  
"No. But she won't drop it. She certain that there's something going on between-"  
  
"Of course she is! Because she knows that if she acts like she knows you'll tell her! Don't tell her anything, god she's such a nosey little bitch!" With that Harry slammed his locker shut and stormed off down the corridor toward the stairs. Draco jogged to catch up with him.  
  
Down on the quadrangle, Harry meandered his way through the other students milling around, Draco could see that he was looking for someone, but was too afraid to ask why, besides, he already knew the answer. As soon as Draco spotted Hermione, he started to hang back; he tried to brush his bangs down over his face, as if that way she wouldn't see him, even though he had the blondest hair of all the boys on the quad.  
  
"You little bitch! Get your fucking nose out of my business, better yet, if you're so childish that you have to take sides and sneak around behind my back to try and find out about what's happening in my life, then just get the hell out of that too, because I don't want anything to do with a person like YOU!" He didn't dignify her with a chance for a response; instead he stormed back across the courtyard and disappeared into the library, with Draco quick on his heels.  
  
"What did you do that for? Now she'll know we're up to something, or else you wouldn't have gotten so angry. Harry... you're scary when you're angry."  
  
"So I bloody well should be, who does she think she is, going around trying to find things out about me, if she wants to know, she should have the guts to ask me. _ME!_ Not you, not Seamus, not Neville. Me. And if she wants to go and take sides then she can just go jump." He tried to hide the fact that he was crying, dragging his sleeve across his face. He collapsed against the wall and slide down until he was crouched at the bottom, his head on his knees, tears falling freely to the floor.  
  
"Harry, you obviously miss her. Why do you make it so difficult, why don't you try and talk to her, I'm sure she just doesn't want to be in between, can't you see? She doesn't want to choose, but you're making her, you wont let her be friends with him, but she's not about to leave him on his own. You need to sit down and talk over this with her or you need to just leave her be. You're only stressing yourself out more." He knelt down beside him. "Harry, I care about you and I hate seeing you get all choked up about this. You need to sort it out. With Hermione, with Ron..." He pulled Harry's face up level with his own.  
  
Harry just sat there, sobbing heavily, trying to pull in enough breath, letting Draco hold has face. And then he leaned forward and grabbed Draco's shoulders and pressed his face into the other boy's jumper.  
  
After a trip to the bathroom and cleaning himself up, Harry tried to eat what remaining food he hadn't thrown in his fit of rage and sat with Dray in a secluded corner of the school grounds, down by the basketball courts, in the shade. Harry was looking up at the school, watching miscellaneous students wandering around, going about their own business, not caring about much in particular. It was at this point that it dawned on Harry that this wasn't a normal thing; this wasn't just what every guy did. They all had girlfriends, and they all thought this was whack.  
  
"Dray, we're freaks." He let his eyes stray from the school to the road by the school and just stared at the tarred road. He heard Dray sigh beside him and looked up at him. "Penny for your thoughts?"  
  
"What's the point, you'll just be ripping me off." He smiled down at Harry, who was lying on his back leaning against the same tree that Draco was sitting up against. Harry propped himself up on his shoulders and looked at Draco quizzically. Draco laughed lightly, "You offer a penny for my thoughts and I always end up putting my two cents in." Finally understanding, Harry smiled too, and rested his head back against the tree.  
  
"Dray, do you think we're gonna get through this with all our friends by our side?" He wasn't sure if he wanted an honest answer from Draco or if he just wanted him to hold him and tell him everything was going to clichéd, and they'd live happily ever after.  
  
"No." He answered simply, looking at Harry sideways. Harry propped himself up again expectantly. "Well, not unless you sort things out with Ron and Hermione."

* * *

END of CHAPTER.  
  
Okay, so that's chapter six, I'm back into this now, and have some fillers so I think I can get the story flowing. I'm sorry it's still shortish, but that just seemed like a good ending for the chapter. The next one will likely be longer and hopefully they'll just progressively get longer until the end or whatever. And I'm really gonna try and keep updating regularly!!  
  
Thanks for Reading, R&R if you care ;) 


	7. Nightmares and letters

Disclaimer – JK owns them all!!! And lucky her. Plot © Sami-Lee 2000-2004  
  
Ok, I'm going to try and really get this rolling again, but ff has been down as most of you probably know. I'll be very surprised if anyone reads this stuff, Harry is starting to get very bitchy and emotional, and it's probably going to start doing Draco some harm... you'll just have to wait and see...  
  
This chapter has a higher rating due to some scenes being somewhat gross. If you have a vivid imagination, or are a bit squeamish, I suggest skipping the long part in italics and noting that Harry simply had a bad dream.  
  
On with the story!

* * *

Harry spent that night sitting on his computer, surfing mindlessly through page after boring page on the internet. He looked down at his instant messenger, MSN, as someone logged in, he thought nothing of it until he noticed who it was. Their sign in name, 'Red', struck an odd chord in Harry's chest. It was Ron.  
  
Do I talk to him? Harry asked himself. No. If he wants to talk to me, he'll talk to me. Harry starred at the screen, almost willing the little box to pop up, telling him he had received a PM from Ron. He stopped breathing when it did. He let his right hand move the mouse, ever so slowly, and click on the box.  
  
_So what's the deal with Malfoy, then?_  
  
He starred at it. He knew the statement was full of resentment and anger, but he was still glad that Ron had gotten over it enough to actually talk to him. Or type to him at least. Harry let himself breathe again, and placed his fingers over the keys, his mind calculating quickly, trying to come up with the right answer. He didn't want to lie to Ron, but he didn't want to hurt him anymore, either. So what did should he do? He sat there for a while longer, before typing the simplest thing he could come up with, which wasn't entirely he truth, but nor did it involve a lie.  
  
_We enjoy each other's company, that's why we've been spending so much time together._  
  
Harry realised after he hit enter that Ron would certainly pick up on the fact that when Harry enjoyed someone's company, it meant he liked them, and it was also at that moment which Harry realised that he had once mentioned to Ron last year that he could see himself with Draco, and that he thought he liked him a little - he'd totally forgotten that incident, but now he remembered, he'd been dating Ron at the time, and it had caused an argument. He sighed inwardly, considering logging out and having a long bath in which he cold drown himself. Ron's answer flicked up, stopping him from going anywhere.  
  
_Why, Harry? Why are you doing this to me? You were my best friend, I loved you! We were so good together, what happened!?  
_  
Harry glared at the sentence, hoping maybe that if he glared hard enough the words would simply catch alight and burn to ashes. They didn't. They sat on the screen and glared back. He didn't have time for this.  
  
_Draco happened, Ron. And that's all there is to it.  
_  
And he logged out. He turned the computer off and left the room. He stopped and watched his phone on the way to the bathroom, daring it to ring so he could pick up the receiver only to hang it up again. It didn't ring. Harry went and ran himself a bath, but he didn't drown himself in his sorrows, he fell asleep and dreamt of Draco.  
  
_Draco walked along a low brick wall, laughing. Harry walked on the footpath below him, strutting along like he owned the whole world. Harry suddenly felt odd, he was actually watching himself, not walking along the pavement next to Draco. _

_Am I dead? He though. No, or I wouldn't be walking. What's going on? They continued on, past a Chinese restaurant, a bookstore, and Ron. Ron? He had walked right past them. Harry made to turn around but Ron had beaten him to it, he pushed Harry hard in the back. Harry stumbled, but didn't fall. _

_"What was that for?" He asked indignantly. Ron did nothing but snicker at him. Then he stopped, and he stood before Harry, simply looking at him. Harry looked back, Draco stepped over to where Harry had stopped and gently took him hand. Ron turned and abruptly walked out onto the road in front of a very large, very fast oncoming truck. Harry yelled out to him. Draco looked away. But Harry couldn't, he stared at what remained. A mess on the road. A mess, and a lot of blood.  
_  
Harry woke up and breathed in harshly, inhaling a mouth full of water as he did so. His wet hair was plastered to his forehead and his arms would barely support his weight. His heart was thudding so loudly behind his ears that he thought it might just jump out of his chest, whither and die. He grasped the edge of the bath and hauled himself out. He shakily dried himself off, roughly pulled on his boxer shorts and retreated to his room.  
  
For the second time that week, Harry got no sleep. He lay and stared at his ceiling, he tried reading a book but it was no use, he couldn't concentrate. He though about ringing someone. But who? Hermione wouldn't have anything to do with him, Draco would get in trouble, hell, anyone would, Harry noted, as he looked at his clock and saw it was 3 am. How was he going to get through school the next day without seeing Ron? He wasn't. He'd have to see him.  
  
Harry left the house early the next morning, he didn't want to catch the bus, he didn't want to see anyone, not even Seamus, not even Draco. He walked the full hour and a half to school, stopping only to get breakfast at McDonalds, avoiding anyone in a St Patrick's uniform. He trudged into the yr 10 corridor and came face to face with Draco.  
  
"Hey Harry, how you feeling?" How did Draco know that something was up?

"Tired. If anything." Harry replied monotonically. Draco looked at him quizzically. "I need to talk to you." Harry grabbed his arm and pulled him into the nearby deserted stairwell. "I dreamt about Ron last night." Draco's features dropped.  
  
"You like him again?" He looked at his shoes and didn't look up again when Harry stomped his feet.  
  
"No." He rolled his eyes. "Let me start again. Last night when I was online, Ron came on and started asking me about us! So I said there was nothing going on. No, actually, I didn't lie to him, I more kind of just said we liked spending time together so we do, I think he go the hint and he went off telling me how much he loves me and shit, you know, the whole, 'what happened to us, Harry?' So I simply said you happened, and logged off." Draco looked at him with one eyebrow raised. Harry continued. "Then I had a bath, and I fell asleep. While I was asleep I dreamt that you and me were walking down the road and then we passed Ron and then he came back and shoved me and then you held my hand so he walked straight out in front of a truck!" Harry was almost yelling as he got to the end. He hadn't taken enough breath either, and was panting slightly. Draco stared at him.  
  
"Are you ok? I'd say it was just a dream, but that never helps, so I wont say it." He put his hand on Harry's shoulder, not game enough to show any more affection towards him at school.  
  
"Which negates the fact that you just did." He laughed and gave Dray a quick hug. "Thanks." He stammered before he walked back out of the stairwell and opened up his locker. Draco smiled to himself before following after Harry.  
  
Harry slowly began to stop blaming Draco for Ron being mad at him, or not so much Draco, the fact that I'm with Draco, He thought to himself. It was, after all, his breaking up with Ron that had started the whole thing.  
  
One lunch time, when Draco just so happened to have a music rehearsal for the upcoming performance, Harry decided to sit with Seamus at lunch. He hadn't spoken to Seamus in a while and decided that now was the time to talk to Seamus about what had happened so many weeks ago. But before Harry could say anything, Seamus said something that instantly rendered Harry speechless.  
  
"So, Harry, you seem pretty ok with the fact that Draco and Ron are speaking." He was picking at his lunch while he said it, not really paying any attention to Harry, or the fact that Harry looked like he was choking. In fact, he was.  
  
"I... you... he... Ron... _WHAT_?!" He managed to spit out. Seamus wiped the spittle off his face and looked up at Harry. His face was extremely red and he looked almost ready to kill.  
  
"I'm sorry, I thought you knew." Harry felt sick, he felt like he was falling over the edge of a huge cliff. He felt totally and utterly betrayed.  
  
Harry didn't want to say anything to Draco at school, he really didn't need to cause any more scenes like the ones with Ron last year. He sighed inwardly, he didn't want Draco to think he was mad at him, well, he was kind of mad at him, but he was more hurt and betrayed, he knew they had music together, but he hadn't thought they would start talking, he didn't think they would become friends! Was the whole world against him? It sure seemed so.  
  
On Saturday morning, Harry slept in, he hadn't had a decent nights sleep in so long, so he let himself sleep until 10, which was a very long sleep in for him. After getting up, showering and dressing, Harry crawled across his bed and grabbed his mobile phone. He opened the messages menu and stared at the blank screen for a few minutes. Then he typed in a short but clear message.  
  
_Hey Dray, you wanna come round today? My parents are out, let me know. Luv Harry.  
_  
He hadn't waited more than 5 minutes before he got a reply confirming that Draco was on his way. Harry knew it took Draco about half an hour to get to his house, depending on the buses - he had to catch two. So he sat down in front of his computer and started typing a very long email to Hermione.

* * *

_"Hermione, _

_I was just sitting in front of my computer thinking about all the good times we had, and then realized all our old emails to each other are gone - that kinda made me sad - anyway, you probably wont get this email and I'll probably print out a copy and give it to you and that's probably the copy your reading now. Your probably thinking 'wait the date on this was ages ago', or 'why is he bringing this up', or ''what the hell is wrong with this guy, why does he always type me these stupid, annoyingly long letters'... Well here's why: ___

_I woke up this morning and I realized I didn't have a reason to get out of bed. I sat up, looked at my clock, looked at my schoolbooks, rolled over and went back to sleep. 10 minutes later, my alarm went off again. So this time I got up, I didn't rush to get ready, I didn't look forward to going down for breakfast or going to potions... I felt a bizarre emptiness inside._

_Now I dunno about you, but I don't think my heart, or my mind for that matter, like being separated from you for too long, I think after a certain amount of time apart from you my whole body just stops finding reason to function and just does things without reason. Which kinda sucks, you know. No reason to get out of bed in the morning and putting on that old all-too-familiar mask._

_But there's still something missing, and I kinda think it's you.___

_Let's face it, all the best moments of my life, my favorite memories and the moments that I recall when I can say I was truly happy, you're in all of them - They're all with you. You're my other half, we're two halves that make a perfect whole, only lately that whole hasn't really been all that perfect...And I don't want you to feel you're stuck between me and Ron, you're not, we'll work it out, you'll see._

_I dunno, maybe it's just me, coz seriously, right now, I have absolutely no idea how you're feeling about all this - you never told me - only that you were confused, and not whether that was a good thing or not, but I was too... As much as I knew it had to happen, I didn't want it to, and that's why I was so upset…___

_I think that me and Ron have put a lot of strain on our friendshrip, that this friendship was getting too constricting, too demanding and too overwhelming for the both of us. We both seemed so miserable in it. _

_Some people say that it's what you wanted, to get me off your back, but I don't think that was it, cos when you want something, you at least try and get it, and you never said anything to me... then again maybe it was, who knows but you? ___

_I think this is a bit of a turning point in my life, I would love it if I could still talk to you and spend time with you and have fun with you, without all the extra stress - the worry that I'll make you mad, or piss you off or disappoint you... And that you can do whatever you want without me nagging or getting annoyed or whatever.___

_For four and a half years you were my lifeline, my support line, and in so many ways, you still are._

_I'm not suggesting anything in this letter, only the things that I would have said had we discussed this, but we never did, and I just had to get this all out... even if you never read it. I just had to get it off my chest; I just had to get out how I feel. But if you did read it, I'm glad. Because I wanted you to know.___

_I want you to know I love you. I'll always love you. You're my best friend, Hermione. You'll always hold that very special place in my heart. Always. No matter what happens, I'll always love you, for the rest of my life...___

_I just wanted you to know... ___

_I'll always be here, I'll always care, I'll always want you to be happy, and I'll always love you._

_Harry"_

* * *

When Draco finally got there, Harry had gone through three packets of Tim Tams and had typed and sent an almost 700 word email to Hermione explaining why he really, really wanted her to still be his friend, and hopefully convincing her of it as well. He printed out a copy, which he folded tighly and put in his back pocket. Draco let himself in and found Harry's head in his arms in front of his beloved computer, empty tim tam packets on the bench next to him, humming the theme to spiderman. He couldn't help but laugh.  
  
"Still not sleeping well?" He asked, smiling. Harry nodded as best he could without lifting his head, before getting up and wandering over to the bin where he threw the tim tam packets.  
  
"We need to talk." He said, walking toward his room, Draco's expression turned to one of worry, as he followed Harry down the hall. "Sit." Harry nodded toward the bed. Draco sat. "Just when were you planning on telling me that you and Ron were becoming good pals?" Harry was furious, but trying to hide it. He didn't hide it very well. Draco flinched a little, but looked as though he'd been expecting this.  
  
"Did you know Ron slits his wrists?" Draco asked conversationally.  
  
"Yes." Harry stated sourly. He looked down at Draco who was obviously feeling very sorry, but wasn't game to say anything because he knew he'd get his head bitten off. Harry sighed and sat down on the bed next to him. "You understand why it hurts me, right?" Draco nodded. "You won't stop, though, will you?" Draco looked up at Harry now, his eyes almost pleading with him.  
  
"He's a good person, Harry, and you hurt him, not purposely, I know, but when he's ready, he'll talk to you again. I've been talking to him, he doesn't hate you. It's a difficult situation. He's willing to forgive you, maybe even be your friend again, if you'll let him."  
  
Harry stood up again and paced the room. "I don't know. Not yet." He left the bedroom, and Draco, and went to the bathroom, he filled the sink and stuck his head in. Even when it was wet, Harry's hair still stuck up at odd angles. He ran his fingers through it several times before returning to his room and facing Draco again. Draco looked up as he walked in.  
  
"I didn't mean to hurt you, Harry. But I was scared of telling you because I thought you'd get mad at me, I should have known better than to not tell you straight away, it was worse for you to find out this way... How did you find out?" Draco did seem sincerely sorry, so Harry sat next to him again on the bed and leaned his elbows on his knees.  
  
"Seamus told me, yesterday, he thought I knew." Harry shrugged and tried to push it out of his mind. He laid down on the bed and Draco soon moved to lie next to him. "Penny for your thoughts." Harry smiled slightly.  
  
"Stop ripping me off, Harry." Draco smiled too and wiggled closer to Harry, who put his arms around him. "I'm so sorry, Harry." And for the rest of the afternoon neither of the boys spoke, and Draco fell into a light sleep with Harry watching. When Draco woke up, Harry had put a DVD on. There was no sound playing and Draco noticed that Harry had been watching the entire movie muted so that he could sleep. He smiled broadly.  
  
"Hey you." He lightly rubbed Harry's arm and Harry looked down and smiled at him. "Whatchya watching? Can't be very interesting with no sound." Harry laughed flippantly.  
  
"Of course it can." He went back a little in the movie and then replayed the scene in slow motion for Dray. "See. Tobey Maguire in a spandex Spidey suit. What could be more interesting or exciting than that!?" Draco playfully hit Harry before rolling over and looking once more at the photos on Harry's wall. There were no longer any of Ron to be seen, but instead his own face smiled back at him from almost every photo. "We look pretty cute together, huh?" Harry had come up behind him and was looking at the photos over Draco's shoulder.  
  
"Yea, we do." Draco answered, he smiled up at Harry for a moment, then he turned his head and kissed him. Harry was shocked at first, Draco never initiated the kissing, but he eventually found himself kissing back and the two moved into a more comfortable position.  
  
"I like it when you start." Harry smiled wickedly for a moment, then started giggling. But Harry still had an uneasy feeling about Draco and Ron...

* * *

Well, thanks for reading another chapter. Sorry if they're still short, I'm trying, really I am. Anyways. I'll continue as soon as I can figure out where this is going. Lol. Actually, I just had an idea. Mwahahaha...... TBC 


	8. All for one Again

JK owns them. Nuff said.

Plot © Sami-Lee 2000-2004.

Well, it's about bloody time for another update, isn't it? God, the details are getting harder and harder to remember, keeping in mind of course that this is loosely based on my life and a hellova lot of the details have been changed.

Anyway, we left the story kind of hanging; things may start to get ugly before they get pretty again. But you'll just have to read it to find out. Mwahaha... on with the story.

* * *

Harry had taken to spending almost every Computing Studies class playing pc games, typing stupidly annoying letters to Draco and daydreaming. But in this particular Computer class, Harry had a different agenda. On this particular Friday morning, nothing special, just a regular, out-of-the-blue Friday, Ron had given him a letter. He hadn't stuck around long enough for Harry to say anything to him, so Harry had taken it to class, chosen a seat at the very back and pulled the letter out the second Ms. Lucas had turned her back. It wasn't very long. He made sure no one was paying him any attention and then leaned over the paper and read:

_Dear Harry,_

_This is getting stupid. I think it's about time you and I sat down and actually talked about it. Draco agrees with me. I talk to him, he's a good friend, you're lucky to have him. But you can have more than one friend, right? What do you say? Can we work this out?_

_I've been doing a lot of thinking over the last couple of months since the holidays, and I've decided it's not the end of the world. We can still be friends, that is, if you want to. And Hermione is willing to be your friend again too. _

_If you're willing to fix this giant mess, meet us in the stairwell after school, Draco can come too._

_R._

Harry blinked at the page, looked around the room, blinked again and then looked back down at the page. Was it real? Was he serious? Harry felt his heart jump up into his throat and make him feel like he couldn't breathe.

He spent the rest of the morning wondering whether or not he'd be going home in one piece. That was, if he met them at the stairwell after school. He brought the topic up with Draco in the art rooms at lunch.

"So, do you think I should go?" Harry was starting to have second thoughts about being friends with Ron and Hermione again, after all, it would mean that Draco could talk to Ron all he wanted and Harry wouldn't have an excuse to not want him to. After all, it would be very like Ron to try and steal Draco just to hurt Harry.

"I think we should go." Draco's response pulled Harry off of his current train of thought. He looked at Draco, sighed inwardly and nodded. So this was it, this was all the time he was going to have with Draco before Ron managed to weasel in and ruin it.

Harry spent the better part of the afternoon fretting about the meeting to come. As much as he did want to be friends with Ron, he was a lot happier just being friends with Draco. In fact he spent so much time dwelling on it, that he almost jumped when the final bell went at the end of home room and he hadn't even realised it was the end of the day. He pulled his backpack over his shoulder and waited for the majority of his classmates to leave before heading out into the back stairwell.

Draco was already there. Alone thank goodness, Harry thought as he threw his bag on the floor and slumped down next to it. Draco watched him before sitting down beside him. "It'll be okay, Harry, I promise."

"But how can you promise?" Harry retorted, Draco looked taken aback for a moment but didn't say anything and let Harry continue. "How can you promise something that you don't know to be true? This could go any way. This could end in tears. This could end in blood..." Harry stopped talking when he heard the door handle click and Ron came through the door, followed by Hermione. Draco stood up and smiled, they smiled back. Harry stood up also, but he didn't smile.

"So..." Ron started shakily, looking at the ground, then at Draco, then at Hermione. Draco nodded at Ron, and Harry couldn't help but feel like Draco should be on his side and should be helping Harry glare at them. He sighed and ran his hand through his hair, only to find Draco staring at him pleadingly when he dropped his hand back to his side.

"Ok, ok... Look. Ron, I'm really sorry, I did some really cruel stuff, said some stuff I shouldn't have and did some stuff I didn't mean. I'm sorry. Herm... I'm sorry that I was such a bad friend... and a horrible person... and miserable company..."

"Oh Harry, don't be ridiculous, you were never a horrible person and you certainly weren't miserable company." She sighed and then smiled at him. "Come'on, you're my best friend no matter how bad a friend you actually are." She smothered the last part in sarcasm and Harry smiled before turning to look at Ron.

"Now, don't say I didn't say that this was going to be hard." Harry warned. "It may near be impossible, but we might as well try, right? Only conditions: You have to trust that I'm not plotting against you, trying to hurt you, being mean without seeming so and all that other shit you seem to come up with sometimes, because I'm not, ok? And I'm with Draco now, so you _have_ to put the past behind you." Harry stared and Ron and waited for him to show some sign that he understood. He looked up at Harry, trying to hide the fact that he was almost in tears, and nodded feebly. Harry nodded back. "Ok then."

So they were three again, only now they were four as well. It wasn't ever going to be the same as it was between Harry and Ron, Harry knew that, but he wasn't sure whether Ron did. He could see every problem that could, and most likely would, arise. Ron would want to get back with Harry, he would do everything in his power to try and make Harry miserable with Draco.

Harry suddenly remembered what Seamus had said about Draco being manipulative and almost laughed out loud. Ron was more manipulative than Draco could ever be. Or did Harry really not know Draco as well as he thought he did? They'd been good friends for a while now, hadn't they? Harry certainly thought so. And any way, Seamus didn't know Draco that well now, did he?

So it started off slowly, Harry started spending more time with Hermione at first, Things were almost back to normal between the two, Hermione certainly seemed happy that they were friends again at least. And Harry was glad he had someone he could talk to about everything again. But it wasn't so easy with Ron. So much had happened between them that Harry found it hard to look at him without remember some bad aspect of the last year. He did want to be Ron's friend, but it just wasn't that simple, so he decided to talk to Draco and Hermione about it.

Hermione went with Harry down to the art rooms that lunchtime so that they could talk to Draco without interruption. They walked in looking slightly serious, as Harry had already started the conversation with Hermione, mentioning his worry that Ron would try and steal Draco, or at least try and turn him against Harry. But before they even got 2 feet inside the door, Harry froze, Hermione turned to look back at him and asked him what was wrong. No reply. He stood just inside the doorframe, mouth open like a goldfish, staring straight ahead. Hermione turned her gaze to see what Harry was looking at.

There was Draco, standing at one of the desks, paintbrush in hand, laughing. And there was Ron, standing next to Draco, smiling broadly and leaning nonchalantly on the desk where Draco was working.

Hermione snuck a look at Harry's face, his teeth were now gritted and his face had turned bright red. She hoped that he wasn't going to do anything stupid and hurried over to the two boys. She whispered something in Ron's ear and he stood up straight, then chanced a glance at Harry who still looked utterly furious. "We were just talking about the concert on Thursday night." Draco said innocently, placing his paintbrush in the glass of water beside the huge piece of canvas he had been working on. Harry opened his mouth to respond but closed it again as his eyes settled on the canvas. Then his mouth opened again.

"Is that..."

"Yes." Draco cut him off. "It's you." He smiled and Harry smiled back then rushed over and pulled Draco into a tight embrace. Ron faltered. He looked at Hermione, looked at Harry and Draco and fled the room. Hermione sighed.

"I'll be right back, you two need to talk though." And with that Hermione disappeared as quickly as Ron had.

"Harry, you have to stop being jealous when I talk to Ron. I understand where you're coming from, but it's just going to cause too much trouble." He looked down at Harry pleadingly.

"I know, I'm sorry. I'll try, I promise." Harry hugged Draco tightly and then sat down at the desk to look more closely at the painting Draco was working on.

"It's for our latest assignment," Draco said, sitting down on the chair next to Harry and resting his chin on Harry's shoulder. "We had to paint something or someone who inspires us." Harry smiled down at him but didn't say anything. In fact Harry couldn't have said anything even if he had wanted to, because before he realised what was happening, Draco had kissed him. It wasn't a long kiss; it wasn't even an overly passionate one. But Draco had just kissed Harry at school. When he stopped, Harry opened his eyes and looked at Draco,

"Sneaky." He said, and both boys laughed.

Harry and Draco met Hermione on the quadrangle at the end of the day; she was going back to Harry's place to help Harry with his Maths homework. They bade goodbye to Draco and watched him run down the stairs flippantly, then Harry turned to Hermione. "I'm sorry about what happened with Ron at lunch, is he ok? I didn't get a chance to see him this afternoon and apologise."

Hermione smiled sadly. "He'll be fine, he just isn't over you yet, frankly, and I don't think he ever will be. It's not the end of the world for him though."

"But will he do anything stupid?" Harry asked, the worry in his voice sincere, not only was he worried that Ron might cut his wrists, but Harry didn't want to be the reason for it.

"Stupid?" Hermione echoed. "You mean cutting himself? Ron's going to add a new scar to his arm, or any other part of his body for that matter, every night without you having to provoke it. Harry, please don't blame yourself, it's not your fault, it really isn't, and he's having problems at home as well right now. He's just not coping with anything well. I've tried asking him to stop. Did you know he's seeing a psychiatrist? He's trying to deal with this, but I'm afraid the only way he knows how is to blame himself..." She trailed off.

Harry already felt awful for the way he'd treated Ron, and now he felt like being with Draco was just going to make things worse. Harry wasn't normally a selfish person, but he really didn't want to give up Draco to try and make Ron feel better when there was only a remote chance that it would actually work. He sighed and followed Hermione down the stairs to the bus stop.

* * *

Ok, so that's another chapter done and I'm working on the next one as you read this! I hope some more people actually read it, too. So, it's starting to get interesting, the three of them are starting to get feisty, and it's just going to get worse! We're not ever half way there yet!! This'll be fun.. hehehehehe

R & R Greatly appreciated

Cheers,

Sami.


	9. Friends again with Felix

Characters © J.K. Rowling.

Plot © Sami-Lee 2000-2004.

**_Warning:_** As well as Slash, this chapter has some extreme adult themes.

* * *

Harry and Hermione had finished their homework hours ago when Harry's mum got home and were deep in conversation about Ron and Draco and the issues involving the two of them. "Oh, Hermione... We haven't seen you in a while, dear, how have you been?"

"Fine thank you, Mrs Potter." She smiled at Harry's mother and then turned back to Harry. Harry got up and shut his bedroom door as his mother walked into the kitchen; Hermione noticed that he flicked the lock as well. "What did you lock it for, Harry?" She was puzzled, Harry's mother never interrupted them, she always knocked and the conversation they were having wasn't that secretive that he'd needed to lock the door.

"Just habit, I guess. Sorry..." He trailed off as he lay back on the bed and stared at the photos, pictures and posters on the wall next to him. He'd covered almost the entire southern wall of his bedroom, and from the majority of the photos, Draco smiled down at him. Harry sighed and then turned his attention back to Hermione.

"You really like him, don't you?" She smiled and looked up at the wall herself. She couldn't blame him, he was probably the best looking guy in the grade, but really, Harry was nothing special without his personality, and perhaps his eyes if you really got the chance to look at them. She did so now. "You're lucky to have each other." Harry nodded and smiled at Hermione, but raised an eyebrow when Hermione only managed a half-smile back.

"What's up, Herm?" Harry had the distinct feeling, just for a fleeting moment, that Hermione might like Draco. But he really isn't her type, he thought to himself, Hermione prefers the less jock type guys, the guys that are quiet and reserved, but still know how to have fun, and she certainly doesn't go for blondes, she's always liked the guys who don't play sports, don't follow the fashion and don't chase after girls like they're rabbits in hunting season. Harry paused for a moment. Hermione likes guys like me! Great...

Hermione was sitting on the end of the bed, watching as Harry ran all these thoughts over in his head, he eyes not moving from his even thought he wasn't looking at her. As he did, though, he found himself caught in her gaze for a moment, and saw something in them that he had only ever seen in Ron's and Draco's before... longing. "I'm fine." She stammered, pulling her glance away from his and getting up off the bed, "Anyways, it's getting late, I should get home." Harry nodded and went out to ask his mum if they could drop her home, to save her catching the bus that late.

When they pulled up outside Hermione's house, Harry got out of the car and hugged her goodbye, then he watched her run up the stairs and into the house from the passenger seat, before turning to his mother.

"What's for dinner?" He hadn't spoken to his mum about anything that had been going on at school, and she hadn't asked. Harry wrote everything down in his diary, and his bedroom was the only room in the house where issues of that nature were mentioned. His mother hadn't known about Ron. His mother didn't even know he was dating boys. Not that he was gay, though, because he was certainly still attracted to girls. He took that moment to think about the way Hermione had looked into his eyes and shook his head before turning up the radio.

His mother leaned across and turned the volume back down. "I can't concentrate with that racket, we're having spaghetti for dinner." Harry nodded. "Harry, we haven't spoken for a while, how's school going? Do you like your new subjects?"

Harry was taken aback by the question, but smiled anyway. "It's fine, yes, I like my subjects. Hermione's in my math class, she was over tonight helping me with my homework." His mother nodded but didn't say anymore. It was true, what she had said, she and Harry barely spoke anymore, and they had been so close not so long ago. Had he become too involved with Draco? Was he neglecting his family and friends? He didn't think so, but then, how long had it been since he'd seen Seamus on a weekend? Ages... he said to himself, and resolved he would do something with Seamus on the coming weekend.

The next morning as Harry sat on the bus, listening to his discman, his mobile started vibrating in his pocket; he pulled it out and saw that he had received a text message. It was highly unusual for Harry to receive a message this early in the morning, he wondered perhaps if he'd left something at home and his mother had let him know. He was surprised when he opened the message and saw it was from Hermione. _'Meet me at McDonalds, come alone, we need to talk.'_ Harry stared blankly at the phone for a couple of seconds before realising that he needed to get off at the next stop. He fumbled for the stop button, pressed it, almost fell as the bus skidded to a halt and stumbled off the bus as the bus driver shouted something about stupid school kids.

He turned his discman off and shoved it into his backpack as he started walking down Park Street. Why did Hermione need to talk to him? Surely it wasn't about Ron? Harry suddenly felt very apprehensive as he walked into McDonalds and looked around for Hermione, Not finding her downstairs, he headed upstairs and found her sitting in one of the corners.

"Hey, what's up?" He sat next to her and put his bag on the table beside them so he could look at her. "Are you ok?" He asked when she didn't answer; he already knew she wasn't though, from the look on her face. She nodded, then started crying.

"I had a huge fight with Mum last night, I didn't know what to do so I left, I didn't know where to go, so I went to Draco's because he lives so close to me, I... I..." she started crying harder. Harry moved to comfort her, but the second he placed his hand on her shoulder he wondered what she had been about to say before she started crying again. Had she and Draco done something? Harry's heart plummeted.

"What happened, Herm?" He tried not to sound angry, or worried or anxious, but he knew he did. Hermione looked up, her eyes and face stained with tears, and without saying anything she held out her arm for him and started crying again. Harry looked down at her arm and saw a thick bandage wrapped around her wrist. His heart jumped back up and into his throat this time, as Harry turned her arm palm up and saw the dark blood stain on the under side of the bandage. "Oh, Herm... How deep is it and how long has this bandage been wrapped over it?"

Hermione sniffled, "I'm not sure, I did it while Draco was sleeping this morning. I left before he was ready, so he wouldn't see, and so I could talk to you..." She started crying again, only this time she just let the tears fall and the sobbing wasn't as bad. Harry had known that Hermione was having problems with her mother since her father left, but he'd had no idea it had gotten this bad, he felt bad for not being there when she needed him.

"Next time call me, and I'll come down, ok? Lets go clean this off." Harry led Hermione into the bathroom. (The men's room to be precise, and they could just deal with it.) Ever so gently, Harry started to peel off the bandage, as he got closer to the skin, he noticed that the bandage had stuck to the drying blood. He ran it under some warm water and Hermione bit her lip. "Herm, I have to get this off, ok? It will probably hurt, feel free to hold onto my arm as hard as you want." He smiled at her, and she nodded, still biting her lip as Harry started, as tenderly as he could, removing the bandage.

Hermione yelped as the bandage started to rip away from the exposed cut, which was very deep, Harry now noticed that it opened up a good 2 centimetres. "Hermione, you have to get this looked at. There's a doctors surgery across the street, I'll take you over there, you've lost a fair amount of blood too. I'm going to finish getting this bandage off, ok?" She nodded, and gripped his arm even harder as Harry slowly peeled the bandage from her torn wrist. After about 10 mins, Harry had managed to get most of the bandage off; there were still some bits too stuck for him to try and remove; and there was blood all over the sink and the floor.

Harry cleaned up the blood and disposed of the bandage as best he could. Then he lead Hermione back out, carrying both of their bags and took her down to the doctors surgery across the street, where they told the doctor that she'd fallen and cut herself on a shard of glass. Harry knew the doctor didn't believe them, but he also knew that the doctor had no right to interrogate them further.

He stayed with her while the doctor sewed her wrist up with 7 stitches. She was still in tears as they left the surgery and started to school, the doctor had written them a certificate, stating that she had cut herself on their way to school, their parents had been informed and Harry had been need to aid Hermione. Harry and Hermione walked the two blocks to school in silence, and Harry spoke to the secretary when they arrived, handing over the note the doctor had written, the secretary nodded and Harry and Hermione hurried off the maths.

Harry and Hermione told everyone exactly what they had told the doctor – that Hermione had fallen on the way to school and Harry had taken her to the doctor. There was no point in worrying them or causing grief on Hermione's part. The only person Harry told was Draco, who had been worried about Hermione, and Harry for that matter, when they hadn't turned up at the beginning of the day.

"I tried to call you, but you didn't pick up." Draco claimed, somewhat annoyed. "But I'm glad Mione's ok." Harry nodded as the two boys headed up to their homeroom to change their books for the next two lessons.

"What'd I miss in English?" Harry asked as the two boys shut their lockers and headed to their next class.

"Nothing, just some stuff on essays, which you probably could have done with." Draco smirked and Harry swatted at him with his geography textbook. Which reminded him, he had geography with Ron, would Ron sit with him?

After a painstaking Religion lesson, the only thing Harry REALLY hated about St Patrick's, Harry said goodbye to Draco and made his way down to his geography class. Ron wasn't there yet, Harry was glad to see, so he took a seat towards the back. This left the ball in Ron's court as to whether or not he wanted to sit with Harry. Harry piled his books onto the table next to him, just in case, and to stop Lavender from sitting there.

Ron entered the classroom, followed by Blaise zabini, who glared at Harry before taking a seat at the front of the room. Ron zigzagged his way through the desks and headed straight for the spot where Harry now had his feet up on the table and was leaning dangerously back on the chair. "Sorry about the other day, Harry, mind if I sit here?" without waiting for an answer, Ron dumped his books onto the desk and sat in the chair beside Harry, causing Harry's chair to wobble alarmingly.

"Sure, why not." Harry said jovially from the floor moments after his chair gave in to the wobbling and fell.

"Opps, sorry, Harry." Ron grinned sheepishly and Harry laughed. He pulled himself up off the floor and plonked back into his chair. The rest of geography went rather slowly, and Harry ended up writing, as usual, a letter to Draco, but when he finished and still had 10 or so minutes until Lunch, Harry decided to write a letter to Seamus as well. He wrote:

_Dear Seamus,_

_Miaow. Miaow, Miaow. Don't ask, because honestly I don't know, did you slip me chocolate in homeroom? Mayhaps. I'm going to be a cat. Yes, Yes I am. Right, so long as I don't start singing Teddy's Bears picnic, right? Right... Anyways, What are you doing this weekend? I am planning an outing and would like very much for you to tag along. Shopping perhaps? I'm dying to buy some new Anime DVD's. Well, let me know._

_Cheers, Miaow,_

_Harry._

_Miaow._

_Miaow...._

_Ok, bye._

Harry folded the note up and put it in his pocket with the note for Draco. As the bell rang he didn't grab his books and rush out of the classroom like he usually did, instead, he gathered his books up and walked up the two flights of stairs with Ron. When they reached the 10th grade lockers, Harry searched out the two blondest boys in the grade and found Draco over by his own locker, obviously waiting for him, and Seamus no where to be seen. He headed over to Draco and pulled his note out of his pocket.

"Oh Harry, you shouldn't have!" Draco squealed in mock excitement with a bad southern-American accent. He then preceded to hand Harry a note in his own messy scrawl.

"But I did." Harry winked. "Have you seen Seamus anywhere?" Draco shrugged and shook his head.

"I have band practice at lunch today, for that thing on Friday night, so you might as well go and find him and sit with him, ok?" Draco folded the note and put it in his pocket. Harry nodded, waved and ran off to find Seamus. He started with the Quadrangle and failing to find him there, or in the library, (which was very unlike Seamus anyways) Harry found Seamus in the canteen line.

"Hey Seamus."

"Oh, Hiya Harry, what's up?" Seamus asked smiling, as he stepped back and let Harry cut in the line in front of him.

"Thanks Seamus. Here, I wrote you a letter." Harry beamed proudly and handed the letter over. Seamus covered his eyes in mock horror at the bright highlighter scribbled all over the page. Then proceed to read the letter. He laughed crazily for a few moments then stopped and looked sideways at Harry.

"Harry, sometimes you're such a girl. And yes, you did have chocolate this morning, I saw you eating it at morning tea." He stuck out his tongue and stepped forward as the line progressed. "And what's with all the Miaowing? Harry, you go be a cat. I'll call you Felix." Harry laughed and Seamus couldn't help but crack up laughing as well.

* * *

The end of another chapter... Well, I just wanted to get the next chapter up, but I'm working on the next one already, I guess I've just had so much stuff going on lately this has become my escape from it all, plus it just puts me in such a good mood writing Stupid!Harry so keep your eyes out for heaps of chocolate, some crazy anime impersonations, and Draco with blue hair!!

R & R

Cheers,

Sami.

Miaow.

Miaow....

Miaow.........


	10. Anime and a Swimming Carnival

Characters © J.K. Rowling.

Plot © Sami-Lee 2000-2004.

* * *

Harry met Seamus that Saturday morning at the bus stop, and spent the bus trip being whacked over the head for singing theme songs in Japanese all the way to the city. Now, travelling into the city when you went to school there, was something not a lot of students did, so Harry and Seamus didn't except to see anyone they knew. When Harry finally stopped trying to sing like an 11-year-old Japanese girl, Seamus decided it was time for a conversation. "So how come you're not seeing Draco today?" Seamus didn't mean to pry, but it was common knowledge now that Draco and Harry were barely separated. 

Harry didn't even stop to think about Seamus' question. "Because I wanted to do something with you! We haven't done anything in ages, and lets face it, we just have so much fun together, how can I not want to do something with you!" Harry beamed and Seamus laughed.

"You have a point there, Felix." Seamus blinked, then winked and Harry smiled again as the two boys headed to one of Harry's favourite stores.

Seamus wasn't as keen on Japanese Anime as Harry was, but he did like it. All the same it was still embarrassing to walk into a store and have your best friend, at 15 years old, run up to the nearest shelf, grab a giant mecha toy and start making it fly around making noises that sounded like... well, Seamus wasn't quite sure what they sounded like. After about 3 minutes, Harry stopped making the mecha fly and suddenly hugged it against his chest then looked around all suspicious-like muttering something that sounded to Seamus like "I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away, I mustn't run away..."

Harry eventually stopped playing with the Evangelion unit and joined Seamus over by the DVD's. "Anything interesting?" Harry asked, grabbing a copy of the 3-disc box set of FLCL. "Oh! I'm getting this." He scanned the shelf again while Seamus watched him, shaking his head.

After several purchases and a long walk between all the Anime stores in Sydney, Harry and Seamus decided it was time for lunch. "And no chocolate!" Seamus added, as he left Harry at the counter and went to find a table. Harry smirked as he took his order, which included a chocolate sundae. The boys ate their lunch almost in silence, until Harry got to his dessert. "I thought I told you no chocolate." Seamus whined, then he snatched it off Harry and helped himself to a very large mouthful. "Ch'cl't ishb'd f'cts" He said, spitting ice cream all over the table. Harry turned up his nose.

"What?" He laughed as Seamus almost choked trying to swallow the huge wad of ice cream he'd put in his mouth. He managed to swallow it and then wiped his mouth.

"I said, chocolate is bad for cats." And the two boys collapsed into a fit of not-so-giggly giggles.

The boys finished of their Saturday with lots of chocolate, popcorn, chips, lollies, coca cola, creaming soda and anything else with large, large quantities of sugar and nice, long, loud, extremely painful Karaoke session.

"I can fly hiiiiiiigher than eeeeaaagleeeee.... You are the wi..ininind beneath my wiiiingss.... The wind beneath my wiiings... fly fly fly.... Fly fly.... Miaow..." Seamus was on the floor; laughing so hard he had to hold his stomach. Harry stopped singing, dropped the microphone on his bed and joined him.

Harry woke up on Sunday with a horrible stomachache. But smiled broadly when he remember what fun he'd had with Seamus yesterday and at the thought of Seamus probably feeling just as sick. He crawled out of bed just in time to hear the phone ring. "Mum?" There was no answer so he tried once more just so he wouldn't have get up. "Mu-um!!!" Still no reply. He sighed and hauled himself up, grabbing the phone in the process. "Hello?" He was really still half asleep and the fact that he felt totally horrible and was trying to stand AND talk on the phone didn't help. But Harry smiled none the less when he heard the other person's voice.

"Harry?" Draco hardly ever called Harry; he usually messaged him. Harry wasn't quite sure why, be he thought it might have something to do with Draco's mother hating him. "Hey, what are you doing today?"

Harry told Draco how sick he was and relayed the previous days events. Draco laughed and said it served Harry right, Harry agreed. So Draco decided he would come over and keep Harry company while he was sick.

Draco turned up 45 minutes after he got off the phone to Harry. Harry had used the time to shower and wash his hair and now felt surprisingly better. It was only when he opened the door to a totally sopping wet Draco that he realised it was raining.

"Well Harry, it is October." Harry nodded sombrely, peering out the door behind Draco before pulling it shut. "I just hope it doesn't rain tomorrow." Harry turned back to Draco and looked at him quizzically. "Harry, don't tell me you forgot that tomorrow is the school swimming carnival..." Draco smirked and Harry frowned.

"I hate any kind of school carnival." Harry whined, and collapsed onto the floor like a bratty child.

"At least you wont have to dress up if your swimming." Harry laughed. "What?" Draco questioned. "You're not swimming? But Harry, you're so good at it."

"Yeah, well, not for a school thing." Harry sighed. "Besides, tomorrow's the 31st, I think I just might dress up..." Harry started laughing again and headed into the living room to tell Draco his plan.

When Harry finished, Draco couldn't stop laughing, "That's great! Lets ring Seamus and tell him now." Harry nodded and grabbed the phone and the two boys took turns in talking to Seamus, who was simply delighted with the plan.

The next day, the students had to meet at the pool and arrange themselves for roll call. It wasn't uncommon to have many students away on the various sports days, and this particular sports day was no exception. Upon arriving, Draco saw that most of the students had sprayed their hair with their team colour, were wearing their team colour or had even dressed up as mascots that had something to do with their team colour; Seamus had come as a bee. Draco wore a light blue T-shirt, but it was the only thing that showed that he was on the blue team. Lavender decided this just wasn't good enough.

"Draco, could you do me a favour and please cover your eyes for a moment, I need to change my top." She smiled cutely and Draco complied, covering his eyes with his hands. It was at that point he heard a sound that sounded like a spray can. He opened one eye, and saw that he was surrounded in what looked like a blue mist. He opened his mouth, and coughed as it filled with hair spray.

Seamus couldn't help it; he instantly dropped into his seat and cracked up laughing. Draco pouted. "How bad is it?" He asked.

"I think it looks good." Replied the giant cat standing behind him. Draco jumped and squealed and Seamus started laughing even harder. Lavender turned back to Draco to find out what he was squealing about and also screamed when she saw the giant cat, tripping over her bag and landing in Hermione's lap. "What?" Harry asked from inside the Felix-the-Cat suit. "Miaow?" And Harry, Seamus and Draco all started laughing.

"Harry? Is that you?" Lavender asked, poking the cat suit. Harry brushed her off.

"No poking, I can still feel you know, it's not that padded." He took the giant head off and pulled a pair of cat ears out of Seamus' backpack. Draco then proceeded to use some acrylic paint to make Harry look just like a cat, without needing to put the head back on. Lavender giggled. "Do you think I look cute, Lav?" Harry enquired, and Lavender nodded, Harry blushed. As a finishing touch, Seamus tied a large piece of blue cloth around Harry's neck like a cape, and he became the mascot of the day for the blue team. ("My hair is BLUE!" cried Draco)

Apart from the fact that Fred and George were the only people they really spoke to who swam, the boys managed to have a fairly productive day, with Harry and Seamus leading cheers, Draco dancing around like a blue-haired freak and Lavender and Hermione bringing them drinks.

In fact, Harry liked his new cat outfit so much, that he wore it to McDonalds after the carnival. "Harry," Hermione asked as they walked down the main road, "If you don't mind me asking, what on earth, besides Seamus and Draco - who I'm sure had a part in this, possessed you to dress like a cat?" Harry laughed before presenting her with an answer.

"Well, nothing really, though it is Halloween, and even though it's not celebrated in Australia (A/N That's right folks!) I thought I'd dress up as a cat for the day. And it was fun. And I got to be a cat. And I got to miaow." Harry and Hermione both started laughing, and the others all decided to join in for the hell of it. It was about a 20-minute walk to McDonalds from the pool, down a main road; and, being in the mood he was in, Harry decided that just walking along in a cat suit wasn't embarrassing enough. So he started singing.

"She told him she'd rather fix her makeup

Than try and fix what's going on

But the problem keeps on calling

Even with the cell phone gone."

Harry looked at Hermione stupidly as he sang the first verse; he wasn't actually so bad when he put a little effort into it, even though he was being silly. But the song sounded fun; it had a very boppy ring to it. Hermione smiled at Harry, who then turned to Lavender and sang the next verse.

"She told him that she believes in living

Bigger than she's living now

But her world keeps spinning backwards

And upside down."

Lavender giggled as Harry somewhat-serenaded her. "Oh, do shut up Harry..." Neville pleaded, but Harry just looked at Seamus and winked. Draco smiled and shook his head. Seamus winked back and joined in, trying to harmonise, and failing only slightly. In fact, for a couple of teenage boys, one dressed as a cat and one as a bee, they sounded pretty good...

"Don't say so long, and throw yourself wrong.

Don't spin today away, 'cause today will soon be..."

Draco started laughing. Ron rolled his eyes, apparently knowing what was coming. Neville sighed. Hermione stared and Lavender giggled some more as Harry threw an arm around Seamus and they started singing once more...

"Gone, like Frank Sinatra, like Elvis and his mom,

Like Al Pacino's cash, nothing lasts in this life.

My High School dreams are gone,

my childhood sweets are gone

Life is a day that doesn't last for long."

Harry and Seamus were having a ball. Everyone else couldn't stop laughing at the two boys now in front of the rest of the group, wandering along, arms over each others shoulders, singing at the top of their lungs, and not a drop of alcohol in them. What the others didn't know though, was that Harry had eaten several chocolate bars during the course of the day, and chocolate, after all, was bad for cats.

"She said, he said, live like no tomorrow

Everyday we borrow brings us

one step closer to the edge. Infinity.

Where's your treasure, where's your hope

if you get the world and lose your soul?

She pretends like she pretends like she's immortal."

The reached McDonalds in a laughing fit, and were met by a fair few strange looks. Harry and Draco offered to go up and order for everyone. The poor girl at the desk could barely look at Harry without laughing, not to mention Draco's blue hair. The ordered all the food and took it back over to the table. The 7 friends talked and laughed long after they finished eating, and headed their sperate ways late into the evening.

When Harry arrived home in his kitty suit, his mother couldn't help but laugh at him, then she hugged him and told to clean up as dinner would be ready in about 10 minutes. Harry did as he was told, and told his mum and dad all about the day they'd had over dinner. After he finished eating. Harry resorted to his room and got his journal out. It'd been a fair while since he'd written in his journal, so he wrote in it steadily for more than two hours, about Draco, about cats and chocolate, about singing Switchfoot songs all the way to McDonalds and about Ron and Hermione.

Later that evening, Harry went on his computer, did some homework and read some bad fan fiction. He was glad that there was hardly anyone on his MSN, he didn't really feel like talking to anyone anyway. Until Seamus logged on, and he received a very excitable "HELLO!" Harry smiled and typed back. The conversation went as follows:

_() I am Felix, hear me roar ... Miaow says: Heya Seamus._

_(6) I wanna bake a cake made of rainbows and smiles! says: How fun was today, hey? We should do that everyday!_

_() I am Felix, hear me roar ... Miaow says: lol, we should, lets make a club!_

_(6) I wanna bake a cake made of rainbows and smiles! says: Yea! And I'll be president!_

_() I am Felix, hear me roar ... Miaow says: I don't think so! I founded it! :P_

_(6) I wanna bake a cake made of rainbows and smiles! says: lol, fair enough._

_() I am Felix, hear me roar ... Miaow says: Seamus..._

_(6) I wanna bake a cake made of rainbows and smiles! says: Yes, Harry?_

_() I am Felix, hear me roar ... Miaow says: What is with your name?_

_(6) I wanna bake a cake made of rainbows and smiles! says: Well... uhhh... I don't know... shut up. I'll see you tomorrow.. don't forget Draco has rehearsals all week, he has that thing on Friday night, remember?_

_() I am Felix, hear me roar ... Miaow says: Oh yea, I keep forgetting, bloody hell. Ok, looks like you're stuck with me all week, hahaha. Lets try and not get detention, ok?_

_(6) I wanna bake a cake made of rainbows and smiles! says: Deal, see you on the bus tomorrow! Ciao._

* * *

Ok, I think I owe a few people some explinations. 

1. ) This is getting really, really weird. This is due to the fact that I'm just having so much fun writing Harry and Seamus, and they're just so funny. Plus that's what I was actually like at school, yes, it's true.

(As for the cat thing, it was a personally joke that me and my mate were talking about yesterday, and he told me to make Harry do it, because it'd suit him.)

2.) The song Harry was singing is called "Gone" and is by a group called Switchfoot. If you havent heard of them, go get their songs, they rock.

3.) This will get a lot more serious. I promise, Harry and Draco's relationship is about to get a whole lot more intense. But the humour aspect will still be there too ;)

4.) I'm sorry if the layout is screwy, I'm uploading these mostly at work with my MAC just to get them up, and then I'm fixing the formatting up at home in the evenings. I'm really working to try and keep these all updated now, but please don't sue me if I start getting a life back and stop, lol.

5.) Thanks to everyone who's reviewing, it's because of you guys that I keep writing this stuff, lol. Thanks.

Cheers,

Sami.

Miaow.


	11. The Concert

Characters © J.K. Rowling.

Plot © Sami-Lee 2000-2004.

* * *

Harry sat in the school hall anxiously, Seamus on one side, Neville on the other. He'd only found out that morning that Draco wasn't only playing cello, he was singing. Harry had never heard Draco sing, and wasn't too sure about what to expect. He wrung his hands together nervously.

"What are you so nervous about, Harry? It'll be fine, I don't think they'd have let him sing if he couldn't." Harry nodded. Seamus was right, but Harry was still nervous. The performance started and Harry relaxed a little as each of the first, second and third performances ended. Draco was in act four – the string quartet. Harry had heard him play cello before, and though he played beautifully in the music room with no one else around, Harry worried about how he would play in front of a very large group of people. Considering the school had over 700 students, and almost all the parents of those students would be there, it was a pretty big event.

The curtains finally opened, and a lot of the students cheered. Then a solo guitar started playing. Not sure who it was who was playing so beautifully, Harry craned his neck and soon saw that, sitting on the stage, acoustic guitar perched on his knee, was Ron. "Wow." He commented, just before Draco joined in with the Cello and Harry realized that they were playing Pachbel's Canon in D. A moment later one of the girls a grade below them started playing the violin and Lavender soon joined in on second violin. Harry sat in awe watching both Draco and Ron.

The entire hall erupted in applause as the quartet finished. They had played brilliantly; there was no doubt about that. The next few acts were piano solo's, one Hermione's, which she played wonderfully. Harry wolf whistled when she finished playing and stood to take her bow. There were a few junior music class performances after that, and then the more advanced acts.

It was common knowledge that Lavender could sing, and she confirmed it again that night, belting out her own version of Delta Goodrem's "Born to Try". Lavender was followed by Ron's younger sister, singing "Fame" and not too shabbily either, and then it was Draco's turn. The entire school band assembled at the front of the stage. Once they were all seated, the strings started first, only with no cello, as the only cellist in the school was about to sing. Harry was wringing his hands in utter anxiety. He stopped. "I know that song..." He looked at Seamus. "I know that song!" and then in a whisper quiet enough for only Seamus to hear "That's _our_ song." Harry looked like he was about to pass out. And at that point, as the drums and the violins started and the piano joined in, Draco walked out onto the stage. And he started singing. Incredibly.

"I could stay awake just to hear you breathing

Watch you smile while you are sleeping

While you're far away and dreaming

I could spend my life in this sweet surrender

I could stay lost in this moment forever

Every moment spent with you is a moment I treasure

I don't wanna close my eyes

I don't wanna fall asleep

'Cuz I'll miss you babe

And I don't wanna miss a thing

'Cuz even when I dream of you

The sweetest dream will never do

I'd still miss you babe

And I don't wanna miss a thing

Laying close to you

Feeling your heart beating

And I'm wondering what you're dreaming

Wondering if it's me you're seeing

Then I kiss your eyes

And thank God we're together

I just want to stay with you in this moment forever

I don't wanna close my eyes

I don't wanna fall asleep

'Cuz I'll miss you babe

And I don't wanna miss a thing

'Cuz even when I dream of you

The sweetest dream will never do

I'd still miss you babe

And I don't wanna miss a thing

I don't wanna miss one smile

I don't wanna miss one kiss

I just wanna be with you

Right here with you just like this

I just wanna hold you close

Feel your heart so close to mine

And just stay here in this moment for all the rest of time

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

I don't wanna close my eyes

I don't wanna fall asleep

'Cuz I'll miss you babe

And I don't wanna miss a thing

'Cuz even when I dream of you

The sweetest dream will never do

I'd still miss you babe

And I don't wanna miss a thing

I'd still miss you babe

And I don't wanna miss a thing..."

Harry wolf whistled as loudly as he possibly could. Seamus stood and started applauding and yelling, Harry stood and joined him and pretty soon most of their grade had stood and was cheering. Harry smiled.

When the concert finished, Harry was already backstage waiting for Draco. He almost jumped on the blonde when he saw him, and Draco laughed. "That good, huh?" Harry nodded stupidly, hanging off Draco's right arm. Draco shook his head and patted Harry's. "There, there, Felix." The two boys laughed as they headed down to the quadrangle. Everyone at school knew about Harry, and didn't find it weird that Harry was holding onto Draco's arm like a lost toddler. Draco's mother, however, did. The second they reached the bottom of the stairs and Draco's mother was standing at the bottom of them, Harry let go of Draco, and even took a step back.

"See you tomorrow, then?" Draco asked Harry, looking a lot less excited than he had a moment earlier.

"Yea, sure, I'll message you." Harry smiled for a moment, then gave in and just waved. He'd would never understand what he'd done to offend Draco's mother in the first place, but what she had just witnessed certainly didn't help the situation. He sighed and then headed off to find his own parents. He found them talking to Mr & Mrs Finnigan. Harry ran over, and slapped Seamus on the back; Seamus stuck his tongue out at him and then proceeded to chase Harry around the quadrangle for a while. Their parents gave them both disapproving looks. Harry and Seamus strongly believed in never acting ones age.

Once their parents had finished their conversation, Harry bade Seamus goodbye and Seamus reminded Harry that as president, he was required at next week's weekly Miaow Meeting, they both laughed. Harry followed his parents to his dad's four-wheel drive and climbed in. He was so tired, and it was only 9:30. He decided he'd have an early night, and promptly fell asleep in the car.

The next morning, Harry work up early. He looked at his clock, 7:42. "Argh." He groaned as he clambered out of bed and made his way slowly to the bathroom. He looked in the mirror. He'd never thought he was ugly, but he'd never thought he was great looking either. He shrugged at his reflection and rubbed his eyes. Then he undressed and got into the shower. Once he'd finished showering, dressed and played his Xbox for an hour, he decided Draco must be awake by now, so he messaged him. _Hey Babe, I'm ready, what did you want to do today?_ He set the phone on the kitchen bench while he proceeded to make some breakfast. The reply came back seconds later. _I'm up too, do you want to go somewhere?_ Harry launched himself on the phone, much the same as the way a cat pounced on a toy, and read the message. Sure he did. But where? He thought about it for a moment then came up with a brilliant idea.

_How about we go to Wonderland? It's still early, we have plenty of time, it'll be fun._ Harry couldn't really think of anything else to do anyways, and besides, the theme park was probably one of the few places he could be as stupid as he wanted and not have to blame chocolate. He even considered wearing his cat suit.

Harry left the house, luckily, wearing his favourite jeans, his favourite light blue t-shirt and his favourite Volcom hat.

Draco agreed that it was a splendid idea, and an hour and half later they were getting off the train at Wonderland. "Right, where to first?" Draco asked excitedly.

"First, my dear Dray, we need chocolate!" And with that Harry made his way down to the huge candy store. He stocked up on chocolate, strawberry milk and coca cola and shoved it all in the backpack he'd brought with him. Draco looked at him strangely and then followed him to their second destination. It was a warm day and Harry had decided that the best ride to do first would be the Snowy River Rampage, which was a large rubber tyre that floated, well, followed the water, down a man made river, with jets that spurted water over the passengers. This way, they'd be nice and wet and the sun would dry them out soon enough anyway.

They reached the end of the line and the sign above them read _'30 minute wait from this point'_. Draco huffed. "Don't be silly, Draco, that's a short wait for this place!" Harry said, very sing-songy. He then proceeded to stand in the line, humming annoyingly for the entire 26 minutes and 19 seconds that they were in the cue. Then the fun began.

Having not paid attention in the cue, it took Draco several minutes, and until he was actually strapped into the ride, to realize that he was going to get wet. He then proceeded to whine and complain until the tyre came around a wide bend and Draco copped a face full of water, which completely ruined his hair. He sulked for the rest of the ride.

Harry laughed at Draco, when the ride was over. His hair was plastered to his forehead; in fact, Harry thought he looked a lot like a drowned cat. He decided that this was cause to make a bunch of words into a song and dance around like a moron! "Draco looks like a dumb drowned cat, doo dah, doo dah. Draco looks like a dumb drowned cat, oh doo dah day!!" Draco scowled at Harry until his attention was caught by something else. Harry had suddenly run into a store, which just so happened to sell cat ears. "How cool! Now I won't have to borrow Seamus' old smelly ones!" He cheered, grabbing a pair and rushing up to the counter. He wore them for the rest of the day.

As they walked up to the section of the park where all the adrenalin rides were, Draco waited until there was no one around, then he admitted something to Harry which had been bothering him. "Uhh, Harry... Have I ever told you that I don't like scary rides?" He asked timidly, as Harry noticed the biggest roller coaster in the park and started running toward it. Harry stopped when Draco spoke.

"Aww, come on Dray, I promise nothing bad'll happen, you'll be fine, it'll be fun, you can hold my hand!" Draco laughed at Harry, and took his hand anyway, letting him lead him over to a rather short cue in front of a rather scary looking rollercoaster. He desperately clung to Harry's hand, both because he was scared and to stop himself biting hi nails. Harry giggled.

As their turn came up, Harry rushed forward and jumped in, placing his bag on the other side of the platform and then pulled Draco down into the seat next to him. He closed his eyes. Harry was getting all pysched up next to him, and it just made Draco feel even worse. He didn't want to ruin it for Harry, but he really didn't want to be on the ride anymore. He opened his eyes and turned to Harry to tell him so. Too late. The rollercoaster jerked a bit, then started going backward.

Draco froze for a moment, then turned and had a look behind him. The rollercoaster was being pulled up a large hill backwards. That seemed odd. At that moment the ride attendant did his little speech:

"Welcome to the Demon. Please keep your arms inside the carriage at all times. No exceptions. Now, have fun and we'll see you back at the platform in 90 seconds!"

Draco noticed that the roller coaster was now almost at the top of the hill, it stopped for a moment when it finally reached the top. Then it released and Draco screamed as it plummeted back through the platform, up another hill around an upside down twist back down, through a loop-the-loop and then up another hill identical and parallel to the first. Harry was laughing his head off, apparently enjoying every little second of it. It stopped at the top and Draco sighed with relief. Too soon, the roller coaster released again and went plunging back down the hill, through the loop-the-loop, through the backward twist and back into the platform – BACKWARDS.

Draco was ready to kill Harry. He jumped off the ride and almost ran down to the gift shop, where he stopped and tried to catch his breath. Harry came down after him, still laughing. "It's. Not. Funny. Harry." Draco was trying very hard not to be angry at him. Harry didn't respond, instead, he walked over to the counter and spoke to one of the girls for a moment. Draco cringed when he noticed that Harry was flirting with her a little. It hurt even more when he remembered that Harry was still attracted to girls, but forgot about it when Harry came back over and held the small bag out for him.

"Go on, take it, it's for you." He smiled, his eyes still laughing. Draco took the bag and opened it, he pulled out what looked like a medium sized card and opened it, inside was a photo, obviously taken from a hidden camera as the roller coaster took the first drop. Harry was laughing, and Draco was sitting next to him, his hands ivory white from the force with which he was gripping the grip-bar, his face holding an expression of pure terror. In fact, he did look kind of funny.

He looked at Harry. "Thanks, Harry." He smiled and hugged him. Harry was shocked at first that Draco would hug him on public, Draco usually seemed so uptight about the whole being gay thing and showing his affection in public. But Harry graciously accepted the hug and hugged him back, patting him on the back. When they broke the hug, the two boys just smiled at one another, then they laughed again as they left the gift shop and headed over to get some lunch.

* * *

Ok, so that's another chapter. We notice Dray getting a little jealous up there, uh oh. Could this mean the start of their own little roller coaster ride? You'll just have to wait for the next chapter to find out!! (Warning, this is going to get ugly.)

Anyways, comments, criticism and suggestions are all welcome, except that the suggestions probably wont do much as I already know how the story goes. I have it all mapped out in my head and it's turning out that the only thing in this that resembles my life is the way Harry acts, lol.

Hope you enjoyed it, stay tuned to see Harry and Draco's first fight, Stoned Ron and a bit more blood. (Hmm...)

Cheers,

Sami.

Miaow.


	12. The Fight

Characters © J.K. Rowling.

Plot © Sami-Lee 2000 - 2004.

Harry intended to spend Sunday morning cleaning his room. He put one of his favourite albums on, Switchfoot – The Beautiful Letdown, of course, and continued to clean his room whilst dancing around like a moron. His music was in fact so loud, that it wasn't until the break between tracks that he actually heard the phone ringing, he scrambled to turn the volume down and grabbed the phone.

"'Allo?" He mumbled into the receiver.

"Hey Harry, it's me, what are you doing today?" Draco's voice responded and Harry smiled broadly.

"I'm cleaning my room, come over, we can bum here."

"Ok, see you in about 45 minutes." Draco hung up the phone. Harry hung up and placed the receiver back in its holder. He looked at his room; it was still far from clean. With 45 minutes, he decided he might as well do a proper job; he went to the kitchen and fetched some plastic bags then returned to his room. He rolled up his sleeves.

42 minutes later, Harry's bed was in the middle of the room under the window, having been pulled away from the wall, his TV was against the wall at the foot of his bed, next to the door and wardrobe and his desk was where his bed had been. Five large plastic bags full of rubbish were sitting outside his door. He wiped the dust that collected on his jeans away, then went and changed the CD over. He didn't really know what else to put on so he put on one of his compilation CDs, which he'd made himself on his computer, it had a whole bunch of crappy old-school music on it, but Harry couldn't be bothered changing it again.

Draco arrived just as Harry was throwing the bags into the bin out the front. They headed up to Harry's room. Harry shut and locked the door behind him and collapsed on the bed, Draco sat on the end.

"Where are your parents?" Draco asked, kicking his shoes off and crawling up to lay next to Harry. Harry kissed him on the forehead before answering.

"I dunno, out, said they'd be home late." He shrugged, causing Draco's head to bounce as he did so. Draco nodded and without warning, kissed Harry. Harry kissed back and smiled when Draco broke the kiss. Without hesitation the two boys moved back together, kissing each other desperately, clinging onto one another like they never wanted to let go. Harry removed his shirt, and then Draco's...

On Monday morning, Harry sat on the bus, in his usual seat, with his headphones blaring his annoyingly loud music into his ears. He stared out the window until the bus pulled up at Seamus' stop and he bounded up to where Harry was sitting and sat in the seat in front of him. "Heya, Harry. How was your weekend?"

Harry pulled his headphones out and looked at Seamus quizzically, Seamus repeated his question, playfully knocking Harry on the head.

"Oh, it was good, we went to Wonderland, ask Draco to show you the photos." He laughed, remembering the photo of Draco on the Demon. Seamus gave him a weird look for laughing to himself. "Anyway, how was yours?"

"You're not well, Harry. And how could you go to wonderland without me!? I'm insulted. I feel neglected. Oh, well, you can go with me in the holidays." Harry agreed, nodding. "Anyway, I didn't do much on the weekend, went to the movies with Dean and what not, kinda boring actually, but then you weren't there." He laughed, ruffling Harry's hair. Harry laughed too.

The two boys stopped for breakfast at McDonalds, and Harry told Seamus about his weekend in a little more detail, including that he'd slept with Draco. Seamus congratulated him, but too soon, Draco was standing at the top of the stairs, staring at them in absolute horror.

"Draco, what's wrong?" Seamus asked. But Harry knew. Draco had always been one for secrecy, and Harry had just told Seamus something that he knew Draco certainly didn't want him telling anyone, regardless of how much Harry trusted them. His heart sank as Draco's expression turned to a glare.

"Draco, wait..." Harry called, as the blonde turned and walked back down the stairs, out the door, halfway down Pitt street and sat down on a chair in the middle of the mall, bawling his eyes out. Harry had taken a moment to grab his school bag before following him at a run. He reached Draco, breathless. "Draco... I – "

"Don't bother, Harry." Draco started, sobbing heavily. "Just don't. I can't believe you told him that, why? That's our private stuff, Harry, that's... it's... private... not... "He started crying again, and Harry sat beside him. "Don't Harry." He said again, shrugging Harry's hand off of his shoulder. "Just... leave me alone. For a while, ok?" Harry sighed and nodded, standing up.

"I'm sorry, but you know we can trust Seamus. He's my best friend. I wont keep secrets from him. I'm sorry." And with that Harry slung his bag over his shoulder and walked away. He didn't want to, but he did.

Harry walked to school slowly, he felt utterly miserable. Seamus caught up to him just before they reached the school. He didn't say anything, but placed his hand on Harry's shoulder and mouthed the words 'I'm sorry'. Harry laughed and shook his head, the tears becoming evermore threatening. He blinked hard to try and stop them from falling, it didn't work.

"Hey, do you wanna skip school? We can go down to the harbour, I'll make you feel better, I promise." Seamus suggested. Harry smiled sincerely and nodded, then followed Seamus past the school and down toward Darling Harbour.

They decided to get something to eat, Harry had claimed he was feeling sick, and settled for KFC, Seamus' shout. They sat down by the water, watching the boats mil around, the people walking along busily, rushing to get to where-ever it was they were going. There wasn't really anyone around the spot where they were sitting, so Harry took the opportunity to speak openly with him.

"I'm sorry I ran out on you this morning." He hung his head and looked at his sneakers, noting to himself that it was about time he got some new ones. Seamus placed his hand once more on Harry's shoulder.

"Look, don't worry about it, I understand where you were coming from, you didn't want him to be mad at you. But you do understand that he might need some time to cool down, don't you? He did seem pretty upset after all. I know that I would be if it was my first time and I heard someone relaying it to their friend in all the gory details." Seamus pulled a half-smile. Harry smiled back.

"Yea, you're right... Wait a minute; did you say it was his first time? Do you just mean with another guy?" Harry stared at Seamus. Seamus looked at Harry with incredulity.

"You didn't know he was a virgin?" Seamus gaped at Harry. Harry went slightly red.

"Well, no, I didn't... I mean, he's the best looking guy in school, how can he still be a virgin?" Harry stuttered; he seriously didn't believe it.

"Well, I would say that's a matter of opinion, Draco being the best looking guy in school, I mean. Personally, I'd say you were. But you better believe he's a virgin, Harry. And accept it, and make it all better. You'll need to talk to him, but I'd give him some time, you know, to calm down and forgive you for telling me all about it. He met Hermione this morning, I think she spoke to him she would have stuck up for you." Seamus patted Harry on the back.

"You're right. Well, I'll give him some time then. In the meantime, what do you want to do?" Harry smiled, visibly cheered, Seamus smiled back and both boys headed over to the Imax theatre, and bought tickets for the latest snowboarding film, receiving many weird looks due to their school uniforms.

As they left the cinema, they were talking excitedly about snowboarding. About how they would go to the snow together in winter and learn how to do it, and buy all their own gear and it would be so cool. They laughed for a while as they headed back up towards the school. Harry suddenly realised that they would have called his mother when he hadn't shown up for homeroom. He cringed, realising that he'd need to find some legitimate reason to give his mother for his skipping school.

The two boys walked past the school and up to Elizabeth Street to the bus stop. Seamus perched himself on the wall and Harry hopped up next to him, and lay down on his side, like an obnoxious underwear model. "Seamus," He said in a deep, mock-sexy voice. "Do you think I'm sexy?" Seamus took one look at Harry and cracked up laughing, falling backward onto the grass as he did. Harry toppled down after him and they lay in the grass laughing and being stupid.

It was about 3:15 pm, the same time they would normally be catching the bus after school, as they rolled around on the grass play fighting like a couple of idiots. Other St. Patrick's students started arriving at the bus stop. Harry and Seamus paid no attention, and continued their feigned frolicking. A few of the girls giggled when they spotted them. After a while, Harry got bored and sat up, brushing his hair off his face. As he did so, he noticed a mop of very familiar blonde hair, standing on the other side of the wall.

"Draco?" He asked. Draco was indeed standing there, watching Harry and Seamus. His arms were folded across his chest and though he still looked fairly upset, he now seemed slightly angrier. Harry tried exasperatingly to fix his hair. "Draco, I... Well, you know that this isn't what it looks like. You know me and Seamus."

"Do I, Harry? I thought I did. But maybe, just maybe, I was wrong." He turned his back to leave, but before he could take a step Seamus had jumped over the wall and was standing in front of him.

"It's _not_ how it looks, Draco. You should at least know _me_ better than that." He spat. Harry had noticed a couple of the girls watching them and took a couple of steps over to them.

"Who do you think'll throw the first punch?" He whispered, and the girls giggled, one of them pointed at Seamus, another one said Draco. Harry winked at them and jumped down off the wall. Draco and Seamus were now yelling at each other, almost inaudibly, and Harry thanked god no one could hear them screaming about which one of them Harry wanted to be with.

"Will you two stop already? Dray, you're taking this way too far, you know Seamus isn't like that." Draco stopped and looked at Harry, then he did something Harry certainly didn't expect. He punched him square in the jaw.

Harry took several small steps backward as he regained his balance. He felt his jaw with his hand and then looked up at Draco. He didn't honour him with a witty come back, he didn't bother to take a swing of his own. Instead he stared at Draco and said, "Come on, Seamus. Lets go."

"You got it, Harry." Seamus said, following him over to the stairs. Draco stood at the bus stop, staring at the ground. Seamus turned back and faced him for a moment. "Now you're even, Draco. You've hurt each other, though in different ways. Harry did try and apologise, he gave you space so you could calm down, so he wouldn't be in the way, and this is how you repay him? He felt like crap, and I was trying to cheer him up and all you can do is jump to your stupid conclusions. I hope you realise what you want sooner or later and then you find a way to talk to him about it." He said it calmly, sympathetically almost. Then he turned and jogged to catch up to Harry who'd stormed off across Hyde Park towards Oxford Street.

Seamus didn't say anything to Harry. He knew him well enough to know that Harry wouldn't want to talk about it yet, and when he did, he would let Seamus know. He followed him across the park and down Oxford Street to one of Harry's favourite stores. As they entered the art supplies store, Seamus noticed Harry pulling out his wallet, and checking to see how much money he had. Like most of the people in their grade, Harry and Seamus didn't have part time jobs. Draco worked at the supermarket down the road from him, and Lavender worked at McDonalds, but most of the others got their money from their parents, like Harry; sometimes, even Draco gave Harry money.

Harry seemed to be content with the amount of money he had and strode over to the section of the store where the canvases were. He pulled out four A3 sized ones and then proceeded over to the paints section. He grabbed a large bottle of black paint and several smaller bottles of colours, grabbed a couple of new paintbrushes and then headed over to the counter. Seamus knew that when Harry was angry, upset or depressed he painted. He knew that once he left Harry on the bus, Harry would be ok once he let all his frustration out on the canvas. Seamus often wondered why Harry didn't do art, and he always said it was because he didn't need his emotional life being judged. He made a good point.

One hundred and ninety three dollars later, the woman at the counter handed Harry a couple of bags and his change and the boys left the store. They didn't have to wait long for a bus, and were glad to see that there were no St. Patrick's students aboard it when they climbed on and dipped their bus passes. They took a seat towards the back.

"You ok, Harry?" Seamus asked. Harry nodded and smiled to let Seamus know that he really was ok. Seamus smiled back and nodded knowingly. He was sure that Harry and Draco would sort it out, after all, it was coming up to their 6-month anniversary.

Funnily enough, his mother didn't say anything to Harry when he got home. She greeted him normally and he went straight to his room, telling her he wasn't hungry and wouldn't be having dinner. He came to the conclusion that they hadn't called her yet. He got changed and locked his door, pulling his sketchbook off his desk.

Harry sat on his bed, the last rays of the afternoon sun filtering through his window onto his sketchbook where he was drawing some designs to put on his canvases. He was wearing his old jeans, which already had a fair few paint splats on them from when he'd painted his room the year before, and one of his old t-shirts, the rips in it showing off his recently attained tan. He'd designed some similar canvases a little while ago, and had pulled out his old designs, some of the idea's he'd chosen to use again, but some of them reminded him too much of his time with Ron. He'd ripped out a few pages and hurled them across the room.

Most of his designs involved images that meant something to him – Dragons, large cats, hell, any cats, Vampires, Magic – basically anything that didn't really exist. He'd drawn some extremely detailed sketches and some scribbles. Once he'd chosen which images he was going to use in his backgrounds, he was going to splat paint all over the top – not for any particular reason, but just because he could.

He sighed and opened his sketchbook back to his first design. He'd drawn a picture of a large black cat, with icy baby-blue eyes, just like Draco's, standing on a large boulder, proud and in charge. He spent hours alone on the cat, his attention to detail ridiculous. His jeans were now spattered all over with black and blue paint. Once he had finished the cat, which he painted in oils and watercolours, he left it to dry and moved on to the second design. The second design consisted of a baby Dragon, her scales pearly pastel blue and pink, her eyes gold. Harry loved her because she was beautiful but dangerous, something he had once been told he himself was. She sat in a field of pastel green grass that glistened with dew and was littered with lavender wild flowers. He painted her in metallic-pearl acrylic and watercolour, with glitter littered over her hide and tiny glue splats over the grass to create the dew. Harry wondered for a moment if he was totally gay, but shook his head when he looked at the wall and still found all the girls attractive.

The third canvas Harry had a different idea for. He took a bunch of old photos, most of them of himself with Draco, Draco on his own and all his other friends. He ripped them all up randomly and stuck them as a huge collage over the canvas. The last canvas he left blank. He figured it could represent the future, whether he saw it empty, or he just didn't know what was there he wasn't sure, but either way, it seemed to fit.

He spread a couple of old sheets over his floor and moved all his equipment to the floor, then he pulled out the paint. He poured the black and each colour into a separate bowl, and then pulled out his paintbrush. He had grabbed more colours than he remembered doing – bright blue, hot pink, sunny orange, forest green, charcoal grey, warm yellow and violet.

He dipped his paintbrush in the black paint and splashed a few lines above the cat, on the top of the canvas where it was blank. He then sprinkled silver glitter over the thick streaks of paint, it very closely resembled a night sky; Harry smiled to himself as he dropped the brush into the glass of water by his feet. Next, he took some green paint and splashed it up towards the cat from the bottom of the canvas; it now looked like the Panther was peering out from behind long blades of grass. Finally, he took a much smaller brush and dipped it in the yellow, he then flick it down over the canvas from the top left corner, creating an effect that looked like moonlight filtering down. He was impressed. He set the canvas up by his desk to dry, and took the next one.

The little Dragon winked up at him from her spot on the grass. Harry took the same pearly paints he had used for her scales and mixed them up with some white paint and water, after completing the sky in the same fashion as he had done for the first canvas, he then took the watered-down pearly paint and splattered it in spirals over the picture, he finished with more silver glitter over the spirals.

The picture with the photos received a few random streaks of black and colour and the final canvas became a mass of swirling colour, spirals, slashes, streaks and blobs, random splotches of glitter littered the canvas. It was the void of the unknown.

Harry sat and stared at his canvases, leaning against his desk to dry. He smiled again before stripping off his t-shirt and jeans, jumping in the shower and hopping into bed.


End file.
